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OP
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4-e.r
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Experiments
ON THE
Generation of Insects
FRANCESCO REDI
OF AREZZO
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITAUAN EDITION
OF 1688 BY MAB BIGELOW
CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
LONDON AGENTS
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., L't'd*
1909
\
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THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING CO.
1909
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THE GENERATION OF INSECTS
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FRANCESCO REDI
From a medal dated 1684 in the Storer Collection
of the Boston Medical Library.
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k
182969
flAR 25 1914
OVN/K
CONTENTS
PAGES
Introduction.
Life of Redi 5-S
Significance of his work 8-ll
Bibliography 13
Experiments on the Generation of Insects.
Plea for the experimental method I9-«I
Historical review 21-26
Redi's hypothesis 26-27^
Experiment on dead snakes 27
Experiments with various meats 30
Meat placed in sealed flasks 33
Discussion of Kircher's experiment 34
Air admitted to flask, but flies excluded by a net . . 36
Criticism of previous writers and description of an- -*
cient beliefs in the spontaneous generation of bees 37-43
Explanation of Biblical story of bees in carcass of lion 44-45
Digression on the habits of bees and wasps .... 46-50
History of opinions on the origin of scorpions . . 51-53
Observations on scorpions 53-62
Further observations disproving spontaneous generation 62-66 •*
Observations on spiders 66-72
Experiments with cheese 73-75
On insects appearing in fruits and vegetables . . . 75-76
Explanation of the belief that animals arise from mud
and soil 76-80 ■
Toads that appear with rain 80-
Refutation of the belief in organisms part plant and
part animal 81-85
On the mantis. Grafting experiment 85-89
Final conclusions on the breeding of flies and other
wing insects in dead flesh, fish, plants, and fruits . 89-90 '
Occurrence of worms in living fungi 90
Liceto's corpuscular hypothesis 91
Redi's belief in heterogenesis in living plants . . . 92-94
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CONTENTS
PAGES
Galls and gall insects 94-95
On the argument that the lower cannot produce the
higher 95 •
On the sensitiveness of plants 96-99
Fruit worms 99-102
Butterflies, their metamorphoses and egg laying . . 102-107
Parasites of cabbage butterfly 107
Willow galls 108-109
No other caterpillars produced by trees 109-113
Internal parasites 113-116
Lice and other external parasites 1 16-125
Conclusion 126
Plates 127-155
Index iS7
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INTRODUCTION
The life of Francesco Redi centers in a period favor-
able to his fame. He was bom in Arezzo, Tuscany, in
1626, sixteen years after the publication of Galileo's
" Sydereus Nuncius " and six years before his " Dia-
logues on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems," at a
time when the twenty century old authority of Aristotle
was still undiminished.
The speculative philosophers Bruno, Campanella, Va-
rini, and Kepler, all critics of Aristotle, prepared the way
for the new Master, who was creator as well as critic.
There was a third influence, however, to be considered :
the Jesuits had monopolized all branches of learning, and
had made Aristotle their own. His observations pre-
sented in the form of concrete and isolated facts, and
especially his theories concerning the stability of the
earth and the fixity of species, were not subversive of
theological doctrine, hence the fathers invoked his name
to clench every proposition. But the Mathematician put
the Biologist's simple " qualities " together and on com-
paring them with his own ascertained " quantities,"
found new values, hence new truths. The combination
of mathematical and natural science was formidable, espe-
cially when expressed in the vernacular; the Church,
alarmed by Galileo's " Dialogues," demanded his abjura-
tion.
Redi was committed early to the care of the Jesuit
Fathers. After leaving their school in Florence, he
5
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6 GENERATION OF INSECTS
Studied medicine and philosophy at the University of
Pisa, whence he returned with his Doctor's degree to
practice in Florence, where his family, meanwhile, had
settled. His parents were of the provincial nobility, and
his father, Gregory, a well-known physician, supported the
family by his profession. Francesco had the good luck
to be called to attend the Grand Duke after a hunting
accident. Subsequently he became court physician and
was much beloved by Ferdinand II and by his son and
successor, Cosimo III. This prince did not resemble
his magnanimous father, the founder of the Accademia
del Cimento, for he did not protect the arts and sciences
through love of them, but rather from vanity and a sense
of his own importance. Cosimo was a bigot, whose mind
was chiefly occupied in prosecuting religious offenders
or in settling matters of etiquette. Small wonder that
Swammerdam refused an invitation to this Court, or that
Steno, his friend, who accepted it, soon afterwards ab-
jured Protestantism. Redi's training admirably fitted
him for this position, which was a difficult one ; for be-
sides his duties as physician and head of the Medicean
laboratory, he was often commanded to negotiate minor
diplomatic matters or requested to act as mediator when
friction occurred between the Grand EUike and his son.
He was obliged to follow the Court in its migrations to
seaside and villa, forced to interrupt his own work, and
to add to his troubles, his nephews (Redi was unmar-
ried), who through his influence held lucrative positions,
were often in difficulties of a compromising nature.
The favor accorded to Redi by Cosimo caused him to
be courted by many learned men, and he unselfishly used
his privileges for the benefit of his numerous friends,
among whom were the poets Filicaja and Menzini, Bel-
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INTRODUCTION ^
lini the physician, and Marchetti, mathematician and
translator of Lucretius. Bellini wrote of him to Mal-
pighi : " Everyone burns incense to the Idol."
Redi never failed in deference to the Jesuits. Father
Seg^eri, the most celebrated orator of the day, was his
close friend, and to Father Kircher, the founder of the
collection in the CoUegio Romano, is inscribed his re-
port on " Various Natural Curiosities brought from In-
dia;" Redi even expressed esteem for Father Gottignes
of Brussels, " a mathematician, who disliked algebra, and
an astronomer, who contested Cassini's discoveries."
This constant friendship for the Jesuits must have had
a maleficent effect on our Author's mind, as it exacted
blind faith and put a limit to his logic. It is pleasanter
to think of his relations with such scientists as Borelli
and Magalotti, to the latter of whom the " Observations
on Vipers " was written in epistolary form, and Carlo
Dati, to whom the present work was addressed ; all were
of the Galilean school and members of the Accademia
del Cimento, reorganized in 1657 by Leopoldo Medici,
Ferdinand's brother, for the purpose of investigating the
nature of things according to Galileo's experimental
method. Redi was also a member of the Lincei, the
earliest scientifib^ academy, founded at Rome in 1603,
and an Arcadian, under the patronage of Queen Christina,
of Sweden. He was arch consul of the famous Ac-
cademia della Crusca, created to preserve the purity of
the Tuscan language, and aided in compiling the third
edition of its dictionary.
Redi was a rare combination of naturalist and poet.
As the latter, he is best known in Italy, where his writ-
ings are admired for their clearness and grace, and where
his famous dithyramb on wine is still popular, being sold
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8 GENERATION OF INSECTS
in penny prints in open stalls. This festive song describes
Bacchus in the act of sampling the Tuscan vintages, which
he praises and offers to Ariadne.
In a sequel to this composition, written in similar
vein, Ariadne is ill from excessive potations, and tells
her maidens to bring water from all the fountains of
Europe, that her thirst may be quenched. From the
equal justice done both subjects, it is apparent that the
Author's mind was ever in equilibrium and that he ap-
preciated the value of opposite things. In true Ana-
creontic spirit, he sings of the vivifying power of wine,
and again he wisely lauds the healing virtue of water.
Indeed Redi was the first to reintroduce the use of
water in medical treatment, much to the disgust of his
father, Gregory, who disliked Hippocratian remedies and
preferred prescriptions " a mile long " after the Arabian
fashion. Francesco believed with Galen that Nature
possesses a healing power of her own, which the phy-
sician can only aid. Levi calls him " the Father of Tus-
can medicine."
In the latter part of his life, Redi suffered from senile
debility and other ailments, but he bore all patiently,
and when a friend asked if he did not dread the approach
of death, he replied that it was useless to do so, as he
had never observed that death could be kept away through
fear. He died suddenly in Pisa, March ist, 1697. Abbe
Salvini writes of his end : " Death, his great enemy,
whom he had so often fearlessly encountered and de-
feated, not daring to look into his face, approached him
stealthily as he lay unconscious, and took him unawares,
so he passed in an instant from sleep to eternal repose.''
As has been said, Redi was able to delve deeply in the
Aristotelean mine of thought by aid of Galileo's meth-
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INTRODUCTION 9
ods; that he strictly belongs to the Galilean school, as
many writers state, is hardly exact. He was not, nor
were most pure biologists, led into the acceptance of an
entirely physico-mechanical interpretation of Nature, as
were Borelli, Descartes, and others, who carried the new
teaching to the extreme, and ended in assuming that the
hirnian body is a machine, moved (Aristotle to the res-
cue!) by the pneimia, or spiritus.
Galileo had proved the falsity of Aristotle's theory of
motion, but another doctrine of his lay open to discus-
sion, namely: spontaneous generation, an ancient and
persistent popular belief, which the father of biology had
accepted, being unable to find any other origin for the
lower animals. Paracelsus was an extreme exponent of
the theory, attempting, it was said, to re-create human
life. His reported experiments in this line excited the
indignation of our orthodox author, who saw in them
an attack on the mystery of Faith. Harvey, in spite of
" omne vivum ex ovol' did not contradict the Greek
philosopher, neither did Cesalpino of Arezzo, the discov-
erer, of the circulation of blood in the lungs. Giuseppe
Aromatari of Assisi was the first to publish his disbe-
lief in the time-honored tradition. In his treatise, " De
Rabia Contagiosa" (Venice, 1625), writing on the gen-
eration of plants, he insists that they arise from the seed,
and that likewise all animals are bom from the egg.
Redi, however, was the first to prove this truth by ex-
periments, that have been compared to those of Tyndall
and Pasteur two hundred years later. Not content with
merely . recording what he perceived, he created new
conditions in which the objects examined presented new
aspects, reaching in this way a different viewpoint from
that of the ordinary observer. Redi also possessed d
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lO GENERATION OF INSECTS
singularly clear reasoning power, and a large measure
of common sense, not an habitual concomitant of knowl-
edge at the time. After disproving the generation of
animals in dead matter, he logically tried to disprove it
in a living medium, and in the case of insects arising
from galls, he thought that the fly laid its egg in the
slit twig, and that the usual transformation occurred.
Unfortunately his observations, far from confirming his
opinion, caused him to change it; that Nature prepared
the gall for the insect seemed evident, so Redi, ever dis-
trustful of himself, sacrificed his idea to that of Aris-
totle, acknowledging the creative power of the spiritus.
This error was subsequently corrected by Redi's pupil,
Vallisneri, who continued his investigations.
The " Esperienze Intorno alia Generazione degl* In-
setti '* gives the circumstances and methods by which
Redi reached his important conclusions and is the work
by which he is best known to men of science. Many
editions prove that it was fully appreciated by his con-
temporaries: the book appeared in 1668, and in 1688
reached the fifth edition, the one from which the follow-
ing translation was made. A Latin version was pub-
lished in Amsterdam in 1671 and was reprinted as Part
1st of a larger work,, "De Insectis," in 1686. Pou-
chet (1859) mentions a French translation: "Collection
Academique," Tome VI. The title of the work gives lit-
tle hint of its varied contents. It is a formal letter
grown into a book showing the attitude of seventeenth-
century Italians towards their surroundings, and afford-
ing a clear insight into their conception of Nature. The
opinions of priests, philosophers, and poets of the period,
on natural phenomena of perennial interest, are here set
down with grave simplicity enlivened by occasional hu-
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INTRODUCTION II
morous comment, and many elaborate quotations from
the classics are inserted as proof or refutation of theories
advanced.
To the student of the history of biology, the book is
a milestone marking the beginning of a great epoch. It
records the first, and therefore the most important, state-
ment supported by experimental evidence of that great
generalization named by Huxley the theory of biogenesis,
a theory, which in its application, has probably been of
more benefit to mankind than any other result of scien-
tific investigation.
The Translator.
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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
This work is indexed
and revised by
Dr. Robert P. Bigelow
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aristotle — History of Animals.
CuviER, G — Histoire des sciences naturelles.
Fabroni — Vitae Italorum lUustrium.
GoRANi — Elogi di due illustri scopritori italiani (unable to
procure).
Imbert, Gaetano — F. Redi, Uomo di Corte e Uomo privato,
N. Antologia, October, 1895.
" " F. Redi, Cenni Biografici, nel Practico
(out of print).
JouRDAN — Biographic medicale.
NiciRON — Memoires, iii Vol. 10 (unable to procure).
PoucH^T, F. A. — Heterogenic, ou traite de la generation
spontanee, base sur de nouvelles experi-
ences, Paris, 1859.
Radl, E. — Geschichte der biologischen Theorien. Teil i,
Leipzig, 1905.
Redi, F. — Osservazioni intomo alle vipere, Firenze, 1664.
" " Esperienze intorno alia generazione degl' insetti,
Firenze, 1668.
" " Lettera sopra alcune opposizioni fatte alle sue
osservazioni intomo alle vipere, Firenze,
1670.
" " Esperienze intomo a diverse cose naturali e par-
ticolarment a quelle che ci son portate
deir Indie, Firenze, 1671.
** " Lettera intomo alia invenzione degli occhiali,
Firenze, 1678.
" " Osservazioni intorno agli animali viveni che si
trovano negli animali viventi, Firenze,
1684.
" " Consulti medici, Firenze, 1726.
" " Lettere di Redi. Ed. 2, Firenze, 1779-1795. 3
Vols.
Salvini — Vite degl* Arcadi.
Settembrini, Luigi — Lezioni di letteratura Italiana, Vol.
2, Napoli.
Thompson, J. A. — Science of Life, 1899.
TiRABOscHi — Storia della Letteratura Italiana, Vol. 8.
13
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ESPERIENZE
Intorno alia Generazione
DEGUINSETTI
P A T T B
DA FRANCESCO REDI
Ccotiltwmo Aretino, e Accadcntco delta Cru^
MdaLuifcrimitttmaLettera
ALL* ILLVSTRISSIMO SIGNOR
CARLO DATL
^/«/ii Ifffrcfshnc.
! N F I R E N £ E. MncLxxxyin
Ncila SUQperia di Piero Macxoi p all' Itifcgna del Liond'O^o.
15
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y'*
Experiment adds to knowledge,
Credulity leads to error.
Arab proverb, Erpenius, ST*
17
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S
\
Nature is nowhere to be seen to greater perfection than in
the very smallest of her works. For this reason then, I must
beg of my readers, notwithstanding the contempt they may feel
for many of these objects, not to feel a similar disdain for the
information I am about to give relative thereto, seeing that
in the study of nature, there is none of her works that is un-
worthy of our consideration.
1 Trans, of Bostock and Riley.
l8
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SIR:
There is no doubt that the senses were given to Rea-
son by the Supreme Architect as aids to the better com-
prehension of natural things. They are like windows or
doors through which she may look out on those things,
or through which they may come in and make them-
selves known. Still better said: the senses are scouts,
or spies, that seek to discover the nature of things, and
report these observations to Reason within, who passes
judgment on everything, describing with more or less
clearness and precision, according to the validity, alert-
ness, and accuracy of her informers. Hence it is that
in order to verify observations, we frequently approach
or recede from the object that we wish to examine,
change its position or its light, and perform many other
actions relating not only to the sense of sight, but also to
those of hearing, smell and touch. In fact, no one of
the slightest intelligence would attempt to exact judg-
ment from Reason in any other way than this. There-
fore, I believe Nature could not possibly choose any
more useful gift for man than his five perfect senses.
It is evident that a man searching for the truths of Nat-
ural History would go far astray if he did not keep his
senses clear, for Reason, if set to work on a superficial
report of the senses, would render a hasty and faulty
verdict. Thus it happens that even young men new to
the schools hold this opinion, which is but common sense,
19
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20 GENERATION OF INSECTS
and has been stated by wise men of early days, who in
philosophical matters were singularly in advance of their
time. Among these, that great genius who knew every-
thing and could write wonderfully well on all subjects,
said in the second canto of Paradiso : ^
Somewhat she smiled; and then, "If the opinion of mortals
be erroneous," she said,
" Where'er the key of sense doth not unlock,
Certes the shaft of wonder should not pierce thee
Now, forasmuch as following the senses.
Thou seest that the reason has short wings."
But, if the senses do not do their duty, if they do not
obtain correct information of what is happening in Na-
ture and thus do not aid Reason, is it strange that she
should make but uncertain progress, now hastening for-
ward impetuously, now retarded by fallacy and caught in
the net of error? Hence, though my philosophical stud-
ies have been pursued with more zeal than profundity, I
have nevertheless given myself all possible trouble and
have taken the greatest care to convince myself of facts
with my own eyes by means of accurate and continued
experiments before submitting them to my mind as mat-
ter for reflection. In this manner, though I may not
have arrived at a perfect knowledge of anything, I have
gone far enough to perceive that I am still entirely ig-
norant of many things the nature of which I supposed
was known to me, and when I discover a palpable false-
hood in ancient writings or in modern belief, I feel so
irresolute and doubtful of my own knowledge that I
scarcely dare attack it without first consulting some
iThe Dante quotations in this work are from LongfelloVs ver-
sions. All other extracts from Italian verse are Englished by the
translator.
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EXPERIMENTAL METHOD 21
learned and prudent friends. Thus having recently made
many experiments especially in regard to the origin of
those living creatures considered, to the present day, by
all schools to have been generated by chance, that is
spontaneously, without paternal seed ; and being distrust-
ful of myself, but still desirous of submitting the results
of my labors to other minds, it occurred to me that I
might have recourse to you, Signor Carlo, as you have
graciously given me a place among your closest friends.
Your great knowledge fortified by philosophy and nobly
adorned with varied erudition is admired by all men of
learning, and is the pride of Tuscany, who envies neither
Latium her Varros, nor Greece her Plutarchs. There-
fore I beg you to take the trouble to read this letter in
your leisure moments and to give me your sincere opin-
ion of it, together with your friendly advice and wise
counsel, by the aid of which I shall be enabled to remove
all superfluous and trivial matter and to add whatever
may be necessary.
"Perchance I may with greater diligence
And patient study yet perfect this work." ^
Many have believed that this beautiful part of the uni-
verse which we commonly call the earth, on leaving the
hands of the Eternal, began to clothe itself in a kind of
green down, which gradually increasing in perfection
and in vigor, by the light of the sun and nourishment
from the soil, became plants and trees, which afforded
food to the animals that the earth subsequently produced
of all kinds, from the elephant to the most minute and
invisible animalcule. But the Earth, not content with
producing dumb animals, desired the glory of being the .
Mother of Man. Hence, we are told by Lactantius that
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22 GENERATION OF INSECTS
the Stoics asserted that human beings sprang forth from
the soil of hill and plain like sprouting mushrooms. It
was the general belief that they did not originate every-
where, but arose in some special place or country ; hence
the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, and the Phrygians gave
the credit to their own lands, and the Arcadians, Phoe-
nicians, and inhabitants of Attica put forth their claims.
The Athenians, as a sign that the fathers of the human
race originated in Greece (being bom from the soil direct
as even now grasshoppers are supposed to be born) wore
golden ornaments in the hair fashioned like the grass-
hopper. But whatever may have been the country of
origin, according to the teaching of Archelaus, a pupil
of Anaxagoras, light, arid soil would not do nor would
a mere sand bank serve the purpose of creation. It was
necessary that the ground should be rich, warm, and
capable of germination, whereupon a milky substance
would be produced forming the first food of man and
beast.
Those creatures living in the early days of the world
were, according to Empedocles and Epicurus, born all
at once, hastily and in disorder from the womb of Earth,
still unused to motherhood. Such haphazard generation
resulted in great confusion; some animals were born
without mouths and without arms, others 'without eyes
and without legs; some creatures with monstrous graft-'
ing of hands and feet tumbled about headless ; still others
were seen with a human head and the body of a beast ;
others had foreparts of beasts and the nether limbs of
man ; and certain ones were perhaps made in such guise
as the poets describe the Minotaur of Crete, the Sphinx,
the Chimera, the Siren, and winged horse of Perseus,
or like the Atlante of Corena described by Ariosto :
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GENERATIVE PRINCIPLE 23
" Nature's own work, no artificial steed,
His dam a mare, a griffin fierce his sire
Who 'queathed his plumage and his wings, indeed
His head and fore feet and the beak entire.
In other parts he to the mare came nigher;
Fleet as the wind was Hyppogriff in speed."
^ But at last th^ great mother, perceiving that such
monstrosities were neither good nor likely to endure, and ^
having become more expert in the art of generation,
succeeded in producingmen and animals according to
their species.rT5«nocritus beai^ .3vitness that men first
appeared in th^"foiiCLQf_small worms', which little by little
assumed human shape; or, as Anaximatide]^ relates, on
escaping from the -womb of Earth jthey^ were enveloped
in a kind of rough, spiriy ^En, not unlike the burr of a
chestnut. After a long period of fertility, during which \
many monstrous and marvelous generations were brought
forth, the Earth Mother became at last exhausted and
sterile and^Tost her power of producing men and the
larger animals, s^U she retained enough vigor to bring
forth (besides plants that are presumed to be generated
spontaneously) Ns^ain small creatures such as flies,
wasps, spiders, ants7 scorpions; and all the other ter-
restrial and aerial insects, called by the Greeks Ivto/aoCwo
and by the Latins, insecta ammalia. The schools, both
ancient and modem, all agree in this, and constantly
teach that the Earth has continued to produce these crea-
tures and will produce them so long as she exists. They
do not, however, agree as to the manner in which these
insects are generated, nor how life is communicated to
them ; for they say that not only does the Earth possess
this occult power, but that it is possessed by all animals
living and dead, also by all things produced from the
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24 GENERATION OF INSECTS
Earth, ai^d finalW by those which are about to decay and^
return to dust. £Hence others have claimed-^putre faction
itself to be the all-potent cause of generation, and still
others, natural heat. Many additional causes have been
adduced, conforming to the divers modes of thought of
different sects, who speak of active and efficient forces,
the world soul, so to say — the spirit of the elements,
ideas, the heavens, their light and motion, and higher in-
fluences./ Nor was there lacking the assertion that the
generation of all insects is caused by the generative prin-
ciple residing in the original and sentient vegetative
souls, of which particles remain alive in the dead bodies
of animals and plants, in a quiescent state, which is
changed into activity by contact with surrounding heat
^nd communicates new life to corrupt matter! There is
still another class of wise persons who hold it to be true
that generation proceeds from certain minute agglomera-
tions of atoms, which contain the seed of all things,
v^ These persons say further that the seed was created by
God at the beginning of the world and scattered in all
directions for the fertilization of the elements, bestowing
upon them, not a transitory, but a permanent fecundity
as stable as the elements themselves; in this way, they
say, are to be interpreted the words of the Sacred Book,
" God created all things together." But that great philos-
opher of our time, the immortal William Harvey, also
held that all living things are born from seed as from
an tggy be it the seed of animals of the same species or
elsewhere derived ; thus he says, " Because this is com-
mon to all living creatures, viz: that they derive their
origin either from semen or eggs, whether this semen
have proceeded from others of the same kind, or have
come by chance or something else. For what sometimes
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HARVEY'S THEORY 25
happens in art occasionally occurs in nature also ; those
things, namely, take place by chance or accident which
otherwise are brought about by art, of this health (ac-
cording to Aristotle) is an illustration. And the thing
is not different as respects generation (in so far as it is
from seed) in certain animals; their semina are either
present by accident, or they proceed from an univocal
agent of the same kind. For even in fortuitous semina
there is an inherent motive principle of generation, which
procreates from itself and of itself; and this is the same
as that which is found in the semina of congenerative ani-
mals — a power, to wit, of forming a living creature.?^
But at first he had said that those invisible seeds, like
atoms floating in the air, were scattered hither and
thither by the winds ; although he never explains whence
or from whom they take origin ; only it may be gathered
from the above quoted words that he believes that those
fortuitous seeds, flying in the air and carried by winds,
proceed from an agent not univocal, to express myself
in the language of the schools, but equivocal. Perhaps,
however, he would have stated his opinion with greater
clearness and precision if the notes which he had col-
lected on this subject had not been dispersed during the
tumult of civil war, to the deplorable loss of the republic
of philosophy. Many persons would have difficulty in
believing that Harvey could have hit upon the truth,
in as much as they obstinately assert that it is impossible
to indicate the efficient cause of the procreation of in-
sects. The subtlest philosopher of past centuries, after
vainly seeking it in our world, declared that the imme-
1 Anatomical Exercises on the Generation of Animals (1651).
Translated by Robert Willis. Works of William Harvey. Lon-
don: Sydenham Society, 1847. p. 427.
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26 GENERATION OF INSECTS
diate cause of the generation of insects was none other
than the Omnipotent Hand of Him whose knowledge
transcends all, that is, the great and good God, from
whom all flying animals received their spirit directly, as
Ennius thought, if we are to believe Varro, who wrote in
the fourth book " De Lingua Latina " : " Ova parire solet
genu' penneis condecoratiun; Non animus, ut ait Ennius.
Et post Inde venit divinitu' pulleis insinuans se ipsa
anima." Hereupon others add that it is no wonder Galen
should confess so modestly in his book his inability to
find this origin, and therefore prays all philosophers who
may happen to fall in with it to let him know of it.
^ But he, holding opinion contrary to the Platonists, was
never able to believe that the Power and Wisdom which
I produces perfect animals, cotdd be the same which
stoops to form scorpions, flies, worms, and such like,
^;_ called imperfect by the scholastics. What may be the
truth among so many opinions or what comes nearest
to it, I am unable to say, nor is it now in my power or
irttent to decide, but if it happens that I disclose my own
belief on the subject, I do so with much hesitation, and
fear, as I imagine that the lines sung by our divine poet
sound in my ear:
"Aye to that truth which has the face of falsehood
A man should close his lips as far as may be.
Because without his fault it causes shame.''
•T^ Although content to be corrected by any one wiser
than myself, if I should make erroneous statements, I
shall express my belief that the Earth, after having
brought forth the first plants and animals at the begin-
ning by order of the Supreme and Omnipotent Creator,
has never since produced any kinds of plants or animals,
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BIOGENESIS 27
either perfect or imperfect ; and everything which we ;
know in past or present times that she has produced,
came solely from the true seeds of the plants and ani-
mals themselves, which thus, through means of their
own, preserve their species. And, although- it be a.4xiat-
ter of 4aily observation that infinite numbers of worms ^
aje produced in dead bodies and decayed plants, I feel,
/I say, inclined to believe that these worms are all gen-
/ erated by insemination and that the putrefied matter in |
/ which they are found has no other office than that of j
{ serving as a place, or suitable nest, where animals de- /
I posit their eggs at the breeding season, and in which they
\ also find nourishment; otherwise, I assert that nothing is
\Leyer generated therein. And, in - u a Jiiis Digiiui Carlo, ^^^
to demonstrate to you the truth of what I say, I will de-
scribe to you some of those itisects, which, being most y
common, are best known to us. Y
It being thus, as I have said, the dictum of ancients
and modems, and the popular belief, that the putrescence
of a dead body, or the filth of any sort of decayed matter
engenders worms ; and being desirous of tracing the truth
in the case, I made the following experiment :
At the beginning of June I ordered to be killed three \
-^ snakes, the kind called eels of iEsculapius. As soon as
^ they were dead, I placed them in an open box to decay.
Not long afterwards I saw that they were covered with
worms of a conical shape and apparently without legs.
These worms were intent on devouring the meat, in-
creasing meanwhile in size, and from day to day I ob-
served that they likewise increased in number; but, al-
though of the same shape, they differed in size, having
been bom on different days. But all, little and big, after
having consumed the meat, leaving only the bones intact.
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28 GENERATION OF INSECTS
escaped from a small aperture in the closed box, and I
was unable to discover their hiding place. Being curious,
therefore, to know their fate, I again prepared three of
the same snakes, which in three days were covered with
small worms. These increased daily in number and size,
remaining alike in form, though not in color. Of these,
the largest were white outside, and the smallest ones,
pink. When the meat was all consumed, the worms ea-
gerly sought an exit, but I had closed every aperture. On
the nineteenth day of the same month some of the worms
ceased all movements, as if they were asleep, and ap-
peared to shrink and gradually to assume a shape like an
egg. On the twentieth day all the worms had assumed
the egg shape, and had taken on a golden white color,
turning to red, which in some darkened, becoming almost
black. At this point the red, as well as the black ones,
changed from soft to hard, resembling somewhat those
chrysalides formed by caterpillars, silkworms, and similar
insects. My curiosity being thus aroused, I noticed that
there was some difference in shape between the red and
the black eggs [pupae],* though it was clear that all were
formed alike of many rings joined together; neverthe-
less, these rings were more sharply outlined, and more
apparent in the black than in the red, which last were
almost smooth and without a slight depression at one end,
like that in a lemon picked from its stalk, which further
distinguished the black egg-like balls. I placed these
balls separately in glass vessels, well covered with paper,
and at the end of eight days, every shell of the red balls
was broken, and from each came forth a fly of gray
1 Throughout this work Redi uses the word " uova " where the
context shows that pupa is meant. In this he followed Harvey,
who called any embryonic mass an " egg."
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FIRST EXPERIMENTS 29
color, torpid and dull, misshapen as if half finished, with
closed wings; but after a few minutes they commenced
to unfold and to expand in exact proportion to the tiny
body, which also in the meantime had acquired symmetry
in all its parts. Then the whole creature, as if made
anew, having lost its gray color, took on a most brilliant
and vivid green; and the whole body had expanded and
grown so that it seemed incredible that it could ever have
been contained in the small shell. Though the red eggs
[pupae] brought forth green flies at the end of eight
days, the black ones labored fourteen days to produce
certain large black flies striped with white, having a
hairy abdomen, of the kind that we see daily buzzing
about butchers' stalls. These at birth were misshapen
and inactive, with closed wings, like the green ones men-
tioned above. Not all the black eggs [pupae] hatched
after fourteen days ; on the contrary, a large part of them
delayed until the twenty-first day, at which time there
came out some curious flies, quite distinct from the other
two broods in size and form, and never before described,
to my knowledge, by any historian, for they are much
smaller than the ordinary house-flies. They have two
silvery wings, not longer than the body, which is entirely
black. The lower abdomen is shiny, with an occasional
hair, as shown by the microscope, and resembles in shape
that of the winged ants. The two long horns, or antennae
(a term used by writers of natural history) protrude
from the head ; the first four legs do not differ from those
of the ordinary fly, but the two posterior ones are much
larger and longer than would appear to be suitable for
such a small body; and they are scaly, like the legs of
the locusta marina; they are of the same color, but
brighter, so red, in fact, that they would put cinnabar
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to shame; being all covered with white spots, they re-
semble-fine enamel work.
That different generations of flies issued from the same
dead body was perplexing, and I sought further knowl-
edge from experiment. To this end, having made ready
six boxes without covers, I placed in the first, two of the
snakes described above, in the second, a large pigeon, in
the third two pounds of veal, in the fourth a large piece
of horse-flesh, in the fifth, a capon, in the sixth, a
sheep's heart; and all became wormy in little more than
twenty-four hours. The worms, five or six days after
birth, changed as usual to eggs [pupse]. From those in
the snakes there hatched, after two days, large flies, some
blue and some purple. The eggs [pupae] in the second
box, some of which were red and others black, hatched
out flies; green flies being produced from the red eggs
[pupae] after eight days, and after fourteen days the
black eggs [pupae] broke in the place where there was
no depression, and there escaped from the shell the same
number of black flies striped with white. Similar flies
were seen issuing from all the other eggs [pupae] in the
boxes containiAg the veal, the capon, the horse-flesh,
and the sheep's heart; but with this difference, that in
the sheep's heart, blue and violet flies were produced, as
well as the black flies striped with white.
In the meanwhile I had placed in a glass dish some
skinned river frogs, and having left the dish open, I found
the next day, on examination, that some small worms
were occupied in devouring them, while some others
swam about, at the bottom of the dish, in a watery mat-
ter that had run out of the frogs. The next day the
worms had all increased in size and many others had ap-
peared that also swam below and on top of the water.
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MAGGOTS FROM EGGS 31
where they devoured the floating fragments of flesh;
and after two days, having consumed all that was left
of the frogs, they swam and sported about in the fetid
liquid, now creeping up, all soft and slimy, on the side
of the glass, now wriggling back to the water until at
last on the following day, without my knowledge, they
all disappeared, having reached the top of the dish.
At the same time I enclosed some fish, called Barbi,
in a box full of holes, with a lid perforated in the same
way. When I opened it after four hours, I found a
large number of very minute maggots on the fish, and I
saw a great many tiny eggs adhering in bunches to the
joints and around all the holes in the interior of the box :
some of these were white and others, yellow. I crushed
them between my nails and the cracked shell emitted a
kind of whitish liquid, thinner and less viscuous than the
white of a fowl's egg.
Having rearranged the box as it was before, and hav-
ing opened it, on the following day, I observed that all
the eggs had hatched into the same number of maggots,
and that the empty shells were still attached in the places
where the hatching occurred; I also noted that the first
maggots hatched had increased to double their size; but
what surprised me most was that on the following day
they had grown so large that every one of them weighed
about seven grains, while only the day before there would
have been twenty-four or thirty to a grain. All the
later ones hatched were very small. The whole lot, al-
most in the twinkling of an eye, finished devouring the
flesh of the fish, leaving all the bones so clean and white
that they looked like skeletons polished by the hand of
the most skilful anatomist.
All these maggots, having been placed where they
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32 GENERATION OF INSECTS
could not escape in spite of all their endeavors, five or
six days after birth turned as usual into as many eggs
[pupae], some of red and some of black color, and not
of the same size; subsequently, at the proper time, dif-
ferent kinds of flies came out, green flies, big blue flies,
black flies striped with white, and others resembling the
marine locust and winged ants, which I have described.
Besides these four kinds I also saw eight or ten common
flies, such as daily hover and buzz about our dinner tables.
Having on the twentieth day noticed that among the
larger eggs [pupae], there were some still unhatched, I
separated them from the others in a different vessel, and
two days after there gradually came out of them some
very small gnats, the number of which after two days
had greatly exceeded the number of eggs [pupae]. I
opened the vessel and having broken five or six of the
eggs [pupae] I found them so packed with gnats that
each shell held at least twenty-five or thirty, and at most
forty.
I continued similar experiments with the raw and
cooked flesh of the ox, the deer, the buffalo, the lion, the
tiger, the dog, the lamb, the kid, the rabbit ; and some-
times with the flesh of ducks, geese, hens, swallows, etc.,
and finally I experimented with different kinds of fish,
such as sword-fish, tun, eel, sole, etc. In every case, one
or other of the above-mentioned kinds of flies were
hatched, and sometimes all were found in a single animal.
Besides these, there were to be seen many broods of small
black flies, some of which were so minute as to be
scarcely visible, and almost always I saw that the decay-
ing flesh and the fissures in the boxes where it lay were
covered not alone with worms, but with the eggs from
which, as I have said, the worms were hatched. These
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MEAT IN CLOSED FLASKS 33
eggs made me think of those deposits dropped by flies
on meats, that eventually become worms, a fact noted by
the compilers of the dictionary of our Academy, and also
well known to hunters and to butchers, who protect their
meats in Summer from filth by covering them with white
cloths. Hence great Homer, in the nineteenth book of
the Iliad, has good reason to say that Achilles feared
lest the flies would breed worms in the wounds of dead
Patrocles, whilst he was preparing to take vengeance
Hector. ^
Having cdnsi^ered these things,. I began to believe that
all worms found m^ meat were derived directly from the
droppings of flies, and not from the putrefaction of the
meat, and I was still more confirmed in this belief by - i
having observed that, before the meat grew wormy, ' -
flies had hovered over it, of the same kind as those that
later bred in it. Belief would be vain without the con-
firmation of experiment, hence in the middle of July I
put a snake, some fish, some eels of the Amo, and a slice
of milk-fed veal in four large, wide-mouthed flasks ; hav-
ing well closed arid sealed them, I then filled the same
number of flasks in the same way, only leaving these
open. It was not long before the meat and the fish, in
these second vessels, became wormy and flies were seen
entering and leaving at will; but in the closed flasks I
did not see a worm, though many days had passed since
the dead flesh had been put in them. Outside on the
paper cover there was now and then a deposit, or a mag-
got that eagerly sought some crevice by which to enter
and obtain nourishment. Meanwhile the different things
placed in the flasks had become putrid and stinking; the
fish, their bones excepted, had all been dissolved into a
thick, turbid fluid, which on settling became clear, with
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I
34 GENERATION OF INSEJCTS
a drop or so of liquid grease floating on the surface;
but the snake kept its form intact/with the same color, as
if it had been put in but yesterday; the eels, on the con-
trary, produced little liquid, tliough they had become
very much swollen, and losing all shape, looked like a
viscous mass of glue; the veal, after many weeks, became
hard and dry.
Not content with these experiments, I tried many
others at different seasons, using different vessels. In
order to leave nothing undone, I even had pieces of meat
put under ground, but though remaining buried for weeks,
they never bred wonns, aswas always the case when
flies had been allowed to light on the meat One day a
large number of worms, whiqh had bred in some buffalo-
meat, were killed by my order; having placed part in a
closed dish, and part in an open one, nothing appeared in
the first dish, but in the second worms had hatched, which
changing as usual into egg-shape balls [pupae], finally
became flies of the common kind. In the same experi-
ment tried with dead flies, I never saw anything breed in
the closed vessel, v
Hence I might conjecture that Father Kircher, though
a man worthy of esteem, was led into erroneous state-
ments in the twelfth book of " The Subterranean World,"
where he describes the experiment of breeding flies in
the dead bodies of the same. " The dead flies," says the
good man, "should be besprinkled and soaked with
honey-water, and then placed on a copper-plate exposed
to the tepid heat of ashes ; afterward very minute worms,
only visible through the microscope, will appear, which
little by little grow wings on the back and assume the
shape of very small flies, that slowly attain perfect size."
I believe, however, that the aforesaid honey-water only
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KIRCHER'S EXPERIMENT 35
serves to attract the living flies to breed in the corpses
of their comrades and to drop their eggs therein ; and I
hold that it is of little use to make the experiment in a
copper vessel heated by warm ashes, for without these
accessories the worms would have bred in the dead bodies.
I also frankly confess my inability to understand how
those small worms, described by Kircher, could change
into small flies without at first, for the space of some
days, being converted into egg-like balls [pupae], nor how
those small flies could hatch out so small and then grow
larger, as all flies, gnats, mosquitoes and butterflies, as
I have observed many times, on escaping from the chrys-
alis are of the same size that they keep through life.
But, oh, how this single, ill-considered experiment of
Kircher must have delighted and elated those persons
who fondly imagined that they could re-create man from
man's dead body by means of fermentation, or other sim-
ilar or still more extraordinary processes! I am of the
opinion that they might have used it as a base for their
theories, and would have boastfully said :
** Thus 'do great sages openly proclaim
That Phoenix dies and is reborn the same.*'
Whereupon these same boasters would perhaps have be
stirred themselves about that incredible undertaking,
.which has been attempted more than once, as I have
heard but have not believed. The absurd tale is not
worth the trouble of confutation, for as Martial says:
" Turpe est difficiles habere nugas,
Et stultus labor est ineptiarum.**
Even Father Kircher, in the eleventh book of the " Sub-
terranean World," has nobly stood out against the folly
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36 GENERATION OF INSECTS
of the charlatan, Paracelsus, who, impiously, would have
us believe that there is a way to create manikins in the
retorts of alchemists. I am still more scandalized at the
assertions of others, who make these lies a foundation
for conjecture concerning the greatest mystery of the
Christian faith, namely, the resurrection of the body at
the end of the world. The Greek, George Pisida, was
one of those who exhorted people to believe in the Res-
urrection, giving the phoenix as an example of it; and
the famous chemist, Sir Kenelm Digby, tried to prove
the same by re-creating crabs out of their own salts, by
chemical means. The holy mysteries of our Faith can-
not be comprehended by human intelligence ; unlike nat-
ural things, these are of the special workmanship of
God, who is believed to be omnipotent, and therefore it
is possible to believe blindly in all His works, for so they
are best understood. In this sense a charming Italian
poet wrote:
/ " Heaven's secrets he alone of men perceives.
Who shuts his eyes and trustfully believes."
Leaving this long digression and returning to my ar-
gument, it is necessary to tell you that although I thought
I had proved that the flesh of dead animals could not
engender worms unless the semina of live ones were de-
posited therein, still, to remove all doubt, as the trial had
been made with closed vessels into which the air could
not penetrate or circulate, I wished to attempt a new ex-
periment by putting meat and fish in a large vase closed
only with a fine Naples veil, that allowed the air to en-
ter. For further protection against flies, I placed the
vessel in a frame covered with the same net. I never
saw any worms in the meat, though many were to be
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GAUZE COVERED FLASK 37
seen moving about on the net-covered frame. These, at-
tracted by the odor of the meat, succeeded at last in pen-
etrating the fine meshes and wotdd have entered the vase
had I not speedily removed them. It was interesting, in
the meanwhile, to notice the number of flies buzzing
about which, every now and then, would light on the
outside net and deposit worms there. I noted that some
left six or seven at a time there, and others dropped them
in the air before reaching the net Perhaps these were
of the same breed mentioned by Scaliger, in whose hand,
by a lucky accident, a large fly deposited some small
worms, whence he drew .the conclusion that all flies bring
forth live worms directly and not eggs. But what I have
already said on the subject proves how much this learned
man was in error. It is true that some kinds of flies bring
forth live worms and some others eggs, as I have proved
by experiment. Nor am I in the least degree convinced
by the authoritative testimony of Father Honore Fabri
of the venerable Company of Jesus, who asserts, in his
book on the " Generation of Animals," that flies always
drop eggs and never worms. It is possible (I neither
affirm nor deny it) that flies sometimes drop eggs and at
other times live worms, but perhaps they would habit-
ually drop eggs if it were not for the heat of the season
that matures the egg and hatches it in the body of the fly,
which as a consequence brings forth live and active
worms.
Johann Sperling, who is usualty accurate in his state-
ments, is also mistaken in writing in his " Zoology " that
worms are not engendered by flies, but arise from the
dung of the same, and in explanation adds with false
premises: Ratio huius ret animis candidis obscura esse
nequit; tnuscce enim omnia liguriunt, vernUumqn^ nuh
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38 GENERATION OF INSECTS
teriam una cum cibo assumunt, assumptamque per alvum
reddunt/' Sperling failed to observe what may be daily
seen by everyone, namely, that flies have their ovaries
divided into two separate cells which contain the eggs that
are sent down through a single and common canal from
which they are ejected, and, indeed, in such large quanti-
ties as would appear incredible, certain green flies being
so fertile that each one would have in its ovary as many
as two hundred eggs. Hence Sperling erred in his be-
lief that the maggots of flies are generated from the dung
of the same. A friend of mine went equally wide in his
conclusions, for having noticed that a fly, entangled in a
web, dropped a worm whenever the spider bit it, he be-
lieved that the spider's bite had power to create worms in
the bodies of flies. Hence as I have shown, no dead
animal can breed worms.
iwlhen can it be true that bees are born in the de-
cayed flesh of bulls ? Yet this statement has been made
and believed. Varro relates that the ^Greeks called them
povyova's on that account. This is a sample of one
of those ancient falsehoods of fabulous origin, which are
subsequently confirmed as truth by other writers and al-
ways with some addition; for all do not describe the won-
derful generation of bees in the same way. Columella
declared that, not wishing to waste time, he would ad-
here to the opinion of Celsus, who conceded immortality
to the bees, hence it was superfluous to seek for them in
the entrails of a decayed bull. But Magone, quoted by
Columella, teaches that the decayed viscera of the bull
is their place of origin ; to which Pliny adds, as necessary,
a covering of dung. Antigonus Carystius, in his
" Collection of Wonderful Histories," says that a whole
bullock must be put under ground, allowing the horns
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BEES 39
to protrude; these, in due time being sawn off, out fly
(says he) the bees. Ovid in the first book of the
" Fasti " largely follows Antigonus :
" Qua, dixit, re pares arte, requiris, apes?
Obrue mactati corpus tellure invenci;
Quod petis a nobis, obrutus ille dabit.
lussa facit pastor, fervent examina putri
De bove: mUle animas una necata dedit"
Varro, in the second book [" De Re Rustica "] does not
state whether the bullock must be buried, or whether it
might be left to rot above ground. Neither does Colu-
mella mention this detail, and Galen is silent concerning
it in the fifth chapter of that book in which he inquires :
"Is that which is contained in the uterus, an animal?"
Virgil in his " Georgics," fourth book, seems to have been
of the opinion that it is not necessary to bury the animal,
but that it might be left in the open air in the woods.
" Quattuor eximos praestanti corpore tauros.
Qui tibi nunc viridis depascunt summa Lycaei,
Delige, et intacta totidem cervice invencas.
Quattuor his aras alta ad delubra Dearum
Constitue, et sacrum iugulis demitte cruorem,
Corporaque ipsa bourn frondoso desere luco.
And further:
"Post, ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus,
Inferias Orphei mittit, lucumque revisit.
Heic vero subitum, ac dictu mirabile, monstrum
Adspiciunt: lique facta boum per viscera toto
Stridere apes utero, et ruptis effervere costis,
Immensasque trahi nubes: iamque arbor e summa
ConAuere, et lentis. uvam demittere ramis"
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40 GENERATION OF INSECTS
And yet he had stated in some verses preceding these,
that a walled-in and covered place was requisite for this
wonderful creation;
Exiguus primum, atque ipsos contractus ad usus
Eligitur locus ■' . . .
But Juba, king of Libya, according to Fiorentino, in the
fifteenth book of the teachings of agriculture, in-
sisted that the calf be placed in a wooden chest Fioren-
tino does not seem to approve of this, on the contrary,
holding the opinions of Democritus and Varro, and re-
membering the saying of Virgil, he affirms that this
operation must proceed in a room especially built for the
purpose, which he describes minutely, adding that com-
mon bees arise from the flesh of the bull, but that the
queens are generated in the brain and in the spinal
marrow; those originating in the brain being stronger,
larger, and more beautiful. As for the nimiber of days
required for this work of creation, Varro differs from
Virgil, assigning thirty-two instead of nine. Giovanni
Rucellai is silent on this point, but he has otherwise fully
described this remarkable process, in his charming, little
poem on bees:
" In the green country, bordering on the Nile,
Whose waters rear the savage crocodile.
Are people versed in many a skilful art.
A means they know, that I'll to thee impart,
Of adding to the number of their bees.
Should these be lessened by some dire disease,
Or Winter's frost, or any sudden harm
Come to the members of the busy swarm.
This is the way to recreate the race :
Choose first of all a very sunny place.
Enclose it well, with walls encirclhtg round.
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BEES 41
And with a tiled roof let the room be crowned;
Four windows full ope then to the four winds.
To let in light, life's maker, without blinds.
A fine young bull I then would have thee take,
(Now hearken well, that there be no mistake)
He must be wearing newly his curved horn ;
Scarce three years may have passed since he was born;
His noble vigor will his roar proclaim.
That echoing loud puts thunder, e'en, to shame.
Now, haply, hast thou heavy boughs and sound
To beat the calf till he fall on the ground;
Then, having shut him in the walled space,
Fresh poplar twigs and willow thou must place
Under the body, and on top be spread
Thyme and serpellium; cassia's for the head.
This must occur in the fair tim$ of Spring,
When, to the Alps, on ever hastening wing.
The cranes return in a long, fleeting tribe
And the Greek delta in the air describe.
Now from the bullock's tender, yielding bones
A tepid humor gently oozing comes.
(Oh, Power of God, how measureless Thou art!)
Marvel of marvels I Now, from every part.
There come forth animals of simple kind.
Formless at first, dragging no legs behind.
Wingless, mere worms, that scarcely seem in motion^
What they may be, at first, one has no notion;
But soon the spirit does in them create
The members all, and limb to limb relate.
And many varied colors charm the eye.
As with spread wings the creatures humming fly ;
Like misty rain, they seem, as on they come.
Lashed by the wind and sparkling in the sun;
Or like bright arrows from the bended bow
Of Turk or Parthian, they swiftly go."
Among the Greeks and the Latins there were many
poets, who described this origin of bees, or alluded to it
in various writings ; Phitetas of Cos, preceptor of Ptolo-
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42 GENERATION OF INSECTS
maeus Philadelphus, Archelaus, the Athenian, cited by
Varro, Philas of Tarsus (in the description of his famous
antidote), Georgius Pisida, Nicander and, lastly, Ovid,
who sings in the fifteenth of the " Metamorphoses ** :
"I quoque, delectos mactatos obrue tauros:
(Cognita res usu) de putri viscere passim
Florilegae nascuntur apes, quae more parentum
Rura colunt, operique favent, in spemque laborant"
Many prose writers also add confirmation to the the-
ory, among whom may be mentioned Origen, Plutarch,
the Hebrew Philo, etc. These ancients are followed by
all the modern philologists and philosophers, who admit
this fable to be true, and often on this foundation aspire
to erect great structures. Even that sublime writer, that
brilliant light of the modern schools, Pierre Gassendi,
relates the tale as a true one, and having noticed that
Virgil prescribes that the aforesaid operation should oc-
cur in the beginning of Spring, before the plants begin to
flower :
"Hoc geritus, Zephyris primum impellentibus imdas.
Ante novis rubeant quam prata coloribus; ante
Garrula quam tignis nidum suspendat hirundo:"
Gassendi says that the admonition is wisely made, for
in that season the bullock [of the experiment] has fed
on grasses bearing seeds, which later would have flow-
ered ; and he further adds that Virgil and Fiorentino cor-
rectly advise that the dead calf be placed on a layer of
thyme and cassia, for these herbs contain seeds, most
efficacious in the generation of bees ; being very aromatic
and pungent, they penetrate the rotten mass of the dead
body, and make it turn into those same industrious in-
sects.
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BEES 43
I repeat that many were, and still others are now, im-
bued with this idea, as for instance; Pietro Crescenzi,
Ulysse Aldrovandi, Fortunio Liceto, Jerome Cardano,
Thomas Moufet, John Johnston, Francis Grembs, Thom-
as Bartholin, Francesco FoUi, inventor of the instru-
ment which indicates the humidity and dryness of the
air, and Philip James Sachs, a man of most inquiring
mind, who in his learned book the " Gamberologia "
makes every effort to uphold this thing as true; and
though Johann Sperling, who is an accurate writer, had
stated in his " Zoology " that during a great pestilence
among the herds of Wittemburg, that fictitious genera-
tion of bees was not observed, nor seen in any way, nev-
ertheless, Sachs, quoting in his own defense the " Idol-
atry," of Gerard Voss, answers that the coldness of the
climate of that country was the cause of the failure to
produce bees.
The artificial generation of bees was also a matter of
belief with Father Athanasius Kircher, who even went
further, stating i» the twelfth book of the " Subterranean
World " that worms resembling caterpillars arise in the
dung of oxen, and putting out wings change into bees.
I do not know whether that estimable author had ever
carefully made this experiment ; but when I made it, fol-
lowing Father Kircher's directions and leaving the dung
in an exposed place, worms were hatched invariably in
Spring, Summer and Fall, and from the worms arose
flies and gnats, but not bees : if however the dung were
kept in a tight place where no flies nor gnats could pene-
trate to lay their eggs, I observed no generation of any
kind.
Returning to my subject, I affirm anew that numerous
modem authors are convinced that bees originate in the
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GENERATION OF INSECTS
esh of bulls. The learned Father Honore Fabri, whose
amous works will never be buried in the gloom of ob-
livion, reiterates this belief in his book on the " Genera-
tion of Animals." y. could name many more if I were
not summoned to answer the reproof of some persons
who sharply remind me of the account given in the four-
teenth chapter of the Book bf Judges, where Samson
having killed a lion, down in the vineyards of Timnath,
on going afterwards to view the carcass, fotmd in it a
beautiful swarm of bees, that had already built their
honey-combs therein. From this source comes also the
statement of Thomas Moufet, in his work on insects,
that some bees are born in the flesh of bulls^ which a re
called — Tt w^ Qye ms j]^and others in the flesh of lionsP
xalle d on that account AtupiTi i jn i' Hfc, [jand that these last
are the better race, being stronger and more courageous,
for they inherit ferocity from their parent and do not
fear if irritated to attack men and to kill animals of all
kinds; hence Aristotle and Pliny bear witness that even
horses have been slain by thenO For this reason in the
Holy Scriptures the strongest and most terrible enemies
are often compared to bees. In Isaiah we read : " The
Lord shall hiss for the bee, that is in the land of Assyria,"
which was thus interpreted by Chaldaeus : " The Lord
will give voice to the armies, that are as strong as bees,
and will lead them to the borders of the land of As-
syria." Rabbi Salomon, explaining this passage, says:
" He will call the bees, that is, an army of strong men,
who will inflict wounds like bees." ^his difficulty was
considered by the erudite Samuel Bochart in his treatise
on the animals of the Bible, where he wisely says that the
story of finding bees in the lion's carcass is true enough,
but that it is no reason for the conclusion that they were
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BEES 45
bom there; the Sacred Text does not state it, on the con-
trary, one would rather assume that when Samson re-
turned to look at the dead lion, it was no longer a car-
cass, but rather a skeleton without flesh. This same au-
thority adds subsequently, that the lion might well in-
deed have become a mere dried skeleton, for when
Samson returned it was "after some days," as the He-
brew text reads, which means " after a year." Bochart
affirms that this manner of using days instead of a year
is of frequent occurrence in the Holy Scriptures, and
cites numerous passages which I omit for the sake of
brevity/)
If then Samson returned after a year's time to view
the lion's body, it is most probable that nothing was left
of it but a bare skeleton, inside of which bees may well
have been at honey-making, for Herodotus mentions such
a case; relating that the Anathusians having cut off the
head of a certain man named Onesilo, and spiked it on the
gate of Amatunta, on becoming dry it was inhabited by a
swarm of bees. The same thing happened in the tomb of
divine Hippocrates (if we may believe the account given
in his life by Soranus). For my part, I remember often
having heard stated by Cav. Albergati (a man of letters
of much erudition), that he saw a large swarm, one day,
hanging on the skull of a horse. At this point the ques-
tion might arise whether some bees might have sought
to eat the flesh of Samson's dead lion, and in eating it
might have dropped eggs upon it, that later hatched into
young bees, which proceeded to build their combs in the
bony structure. To this question I would at once re-
spond by saying that bees are very dainty animals, and H
of such nice and delicate taste, that they not only do not
eat dead flesh, but they loathe it extremely. I have made
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46 GENERATION OF INSECTS
the experiment, at different times and places, of putting
pieces of meat near the apiaries, but the bees would never
go near them. Still, if you do not credit my statement
in the matter, Signor Carlo, at least you will believe what
Aristotle says in chapter 40 of book 14 of the " History
of Animals " ; you will believe Varro, and Didymus, who
copied him; and the Greek, Manuel Philes, who once
flourished, having obtained all the material of his work
from MlisLvms. Then there is the authority of Curopalata
and of Balbo, emperors of Constantinople, and finally
there is Pliny, who surely has weight with you; he wrote :
" Omnes came vescuntur, contra quam apes, quae nulltmi
corpus attingunt." But good Pliny, forgetting probably
this statement, contradicts himself in chapter 14, book 21,
where he wrote : " Si cibus deesse censeatur apibus,
uvas passas siccasve, ficosque tusas, ad fores earum
posuisse conveniet Item lanas tractas madentes passo,
aut defruto, aut aqua mulsa. Gallinarum etiam crudas
cames."
On considering this manifest contradiction of Pliny's
I thought it might be due to an error in the copy, but I
removed all doubt by comparing this passage with many
old written texts of the most celebrated libraries of Italy.
In all I invariably found the same words as occur in the
old Pliny printed in Rome in 1473 ^^^ ^^ ^^^ Parma edi-
tion of 1480. There is however this difference to be
noted, 1. e. all the printed works give : " Gallinarum
etiam crudas cames,*' while the MSS read : " gallinarum
etiam nudas cames." I leave the critics to decide which
is the better reading, but I believe that Pliny wrote : " cru-
das cames," having obtained his data from Columella,
who, in chapter 14 of book 9 of his treatise, states that
when food was lacking for the bees, many persons were
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HORNETS AND WASPS 47
wont to put unpicked dead birds in the apiaries. It is
strange how writers itch to contradict each other; and
j this is perhaps why Pietro Crescenzi insists that hungry
bees should not be fed with raw meat, but should be /
given roast chicken. I prefer to believe as Pliny does, /
that bees do not eat meat unless forced to do so by
famine.
Bees are of different nature from hornets and wasps,
for these greedily devour any kind of meat and putrefied
flesh, that may be placed before them, as I have tried
several times ; not only do they eat meat, but they scrape
and roll it into little balls, which they carry to their
nests. These insects are so immoderately greedy that
sometimes, when hungry, they even dare to attack living
animals. Thomas Moufet, in his "Theatnmi Insect-
arum," relates that in England a wasp was seen to pursue a
swallow, and having stung it to death, gorged itself with
the blood. Nor do they leave human flesh alone. Hence
Cointo of Smyrna said that the Greeks led by Neoptole-
mus hurled themselves into the fray like wasps flying
irom their nests in search of human food. Likewise
the sovereign poet, who in his divine works "showed
the full power of the Tuscan tongue," took as his theme
the sufferings of those doomed ones, who on the other
side of Hell's gate were tormented with wasps :
" These miscreants who never were alive
Were naked and were stung exceedingly
By gad-flies and by hornets that were there.
These did their faces irrigate with blood,
Which with their tears commingled at their feet
By the disgusting worms was gathered up."
Wasps are gluttonous eaters of serpents, if we are to
believe Pliny, and this food, says he, makes their sting
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48 GENERATION OF INSECTS
more venomous ; which statement is confirmed by ^lianiis
in chapter 15 book 9 of the " History of Animals," where
he relates that wasps hasten to infect their sting with
the toxin of the dead viper; from which human malice
subsequently got the art of poisoning darts. Ulysses,
as is recounted in the Odyssey, sailed to Ephyra to learn
this art from a certain Ilus Mermerida, and Hercules,
still earlier than Ulysses, as is told, made his arrows
deadly by dipping them in the Hydra's blood. It is not
credible that the stings of wasps and hornets are poison-
ous because these insects have fed indiscriminately on
serpent's flesh, for that could be granted only in case
they had dipped their stings in the fatal liquid hidden in
the sheaths that cover the canines of the viper, as I
stated in my " Observations of Vipers/' If indeed wasps
and hornets possessed this malicious natural disposition
(as iElianus asserts), I for one, would not be willing to
believe it. In the remaining fragment of a book of Theo-
phrastus, preserved in the Library of Fozio, on " Ani-
mals that are supposed to be malicious," he sagely holds
that malice is never found in animals that are not en-
dowed with speech. For if the newt, as people say, eats
its cast off skin ; if the sea calf, on being caught, vomits
its rennet ; if mares tear from their foals' heads the fab-
ulous hippomane and devour it; if the deer (which is also
a lie) hides his right horn underground when it falls off;
if the lynx conceals his urine from the sight of man; and
if the hedgehog, when caught by the hunter, spoils his
skin by urinating on it; these acts, according to Theo-
phrastus, are performed either through fear or for some
other reason peculiar to the animals in question, but not
because they maliciously desire to deprive man of those
excrements, which the common people believe to be use-
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HORNETS AND WASPS 49
ful in certain diseases and also in the ridiculous com-
pounds of witches. Imitating Theophrastus, I would
still further say, that wasps and hornets buzz about the
dead bodies of snakes, not in order to obtain poison for
their stings, but to get nourishment; and to the same end
do they persecute bees and flies. But still wasps do live
on fruit and flowers, both fresh and dry, and they devour
grapes, particularly of the Muscat variety, with incredi-
ble greediness, as Cointo, the Smymian, testifies and as
may be daily verified by observation.
As I have said, it is false that bees are born in the
decayed flesh of bulls; neither canine believe the tale
that, in some parts of Russia, serpents are f oimd,. jfidiich
feed on milk, and have a head shaped like a duck's, with
a bill. These snakes are called " zmya," and are said to
generate bees in their living bodies and then to throw
them up little by little, at the rate of two swarms a year;
these bees, being called " zmyoiocki,*' in the language of
the country, retain much of their serpentine nature, and
are armed with a poisonous sting, that is often fatal.
This story is held to be a fact in those provinces, and
many report that they have seen those peculiar snakes.
A man, named Szizucha, in Paris, confirmed this account,
as I have learned in a letter to me from the erudite Signor
Menagio, who does not believe the tale, however. On
the contrary, Signor Menagio considers that, assuming
the existence of snakes that vomit bees, they must have
been swallowed alive, at some time when the snakes
were robbing honey from the hives. He- says in the let-
ter : " II n'y a point d' apparence de croire, que ces abeil-
les s'engendrent dans le corps de cette sorte de serpens ;
et il est vraisemblable, que ces serpens les ayant avallees
avec leur miel, car la plupart des serpens aiment les
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choses douces, ils les revomissent de suite, en estant
piquez." Perhaps this phenomenon may have occurred
once, and have been observed once, which was enough
to give rise to a fable, that gained universal credence.
Be this as it may, I shall add another fable to it, namely
the origin of wasps and hornets from dead flesh, al-
though by universal conformity of opinion it has been
accepted as the truth.
Antigonus, Pliny, Plutarch, Nicander, ^Elianus, and
Archelaus, as quoted by Varro, teach that wasps orig-
inate in the dead flesh of horses. Virgil admits it to be
also the origin of hornets. Ovid mentions only hornets :
" Pressus humo bellator equus crabronis origo est."
Thomas Moufet reports that hornets are generated in
the hard parts of horseflesh, and wasps in the tender
parts. The Greek commentators of Nicander attribute
the creative property to the horse's skin alone, adding
as a necessary condition that the horse must have been
bitten and torn by a wolf. But Servius, the grammarian,
turned everything topsy-turvy by asserting that drones
come from horses, hornets from mules, and wasps from
asses. Olimpiodorus, Pliny, Cardano and Porta insist
that ass-flesh gives birth to drones and beetles, but not to
wasps. Oro in the twenty-third chapter, book second,
of the " Hieroglyphics," speaks of wasps born in the flesh
of the crocodile ; and Antigonus in the twenty-third chap-
ter of " Wonderful Histories " had occasion to say that,
terrestrial scorpions, but not wasps are born spontane-
ously in the flesh of the crocodile. If such creation really
occurs in the flesh of this reptile, I shall not perplex my-
self with dwelling on it, because I have not made any
experiments in the case nor do I think that I shall be
able to make any at present. I wish firmly to believe
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HORNETS AND WASPS 5 1
that, as I have found out the falsehood concerning the
origin of those other insects supposed to arise from the
flesh of mules, asses, and horses, I should find the story
of the dead and decayed crocodile as the parent of wasps
and scorpions to be equally fabulous. My experiments
have proved just as false the accounts of Fortunio Liceto,
Giovanni Batista Porta, Grevino, Moufet, and Nierem-
berg wherein is asserted that scorpions originate from
buried crabs. These writers have accepted with too
much credulity, and too naively Pliny's doctrine, which
perhaps in turn was borrowed from Ovid's " Metamor-
phoses,"
"Concava littoreo demas si brachia cancro,
Caetera supponas terrae, de parte sepulta
Scorpius eidiibit, caudaque minabitur unca."
But Pliny adds to this SBying of Ovid's a condition of
the kind held in veneration by the people, i. e. that this
work should be done on precisely those days, during
which the sun travels in the sign of Cancer. " Soli Can-
cri signum transeunte, fet ipsorum, cum examinati sint,
corpus transfigurari in scorpiones, narratur in siceo."
This fable was not in the least credited by Thomas
Bartholin, a man, by universal consent, numbered among
the greatest and most famous physicians and anatomists
of past and present ages, for in a letter written to the
learned Philip James Sachs, he repeatedly affirms having
observed that in Denmark, where there is an abundance
of crabs, scorpions do not breed in their dead bodies.
Sachs does not adhere however to the ideas of Bartholin ;
on the contrary, he believes in such generation, adding
that the experiments made in Denmark prove nothing
at all, as Northern countries are always entirely lacking
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52 GENERATION OF INSECTS
in scorpions. Nevertheless, I feel inclined to believe (be
it said with all due deference to such a worthy man of
letters) that Sachs is perhaps mistaken, as are all the
aforesaid modern authors in common with Ovid and
Pliny. Not content with having scorpions come out of
crabs, Pliny would have it that sweet basil, when
pounded, and then covered with a stone, would also
breed them, and his ideas were largely followed in later
times by the Greek compiler of agricultural rules, who
however does not allow the sweet basil to be buried under
the stone, but avows that it must be masticated and then
exposed to the sun. Porta follows this man's opinion,
but Mattiuoli and Liceto hold to that of Pliny. In fact
an infinite number of others attribute a like faculty to
this aromatic herb. Wolfgang Oefler, quoted in Sachs's
" Cammaralogia," relates that, in our times, a certain
apothecary of Vienna, more ingenious than his fellows,
had found a way to breed the dangerous little creatures ar-
tificially. In the months of July or August, the sun being
in Cancer, he pounded the sweet basil thoroughly and
spread it over a red-hot tile to the depth' of three fingers;
this he covered immediately with a similar tile and ce-
mented the joints with mud made of sand and horse-
dung; then he put the tiles in the cellar for a month, and
afterwards on opening them, he found the scorpions
ready bom inside. Whereupon the good man made use
of them for all purposes in which scorpions are medically
efficacious.
An old opinion, though it be false, has great power
over the minds of men. It is therefore not strange that
Jacques HoulHer, a physician of great repute, should be-
lieve, as is stated in Book first of his ** Practice of Medi-
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SCORPIONS 53
cine," that a scorpion was born in the head of a certain
man, an Italian, who had smelt sweet basil too freely.
"'Twas perchance true, but not within belief
Of him who is the master of his mind."
But if HouUier had believed what Galen wrote about
sweet basil in the second book of the " Properties of
Foods" such an absurdity would not have escaped his
pen. Michael Fehr, quoted by Sachs, was more accurate
in his statements and more commendable, for having read
in Galen that scorpions are not generated in sweet basil,
he tried the experiment, and found that Galen was right
and all the others wrong. Equally ignorant are those,
who assert that not only sweet basil, but other things,
such as watercress and rotten wood, produce these crea-
tures. Fortunio Liceto relates that J. Marta, the Nea-
politan, could breed scorpions from the soil of the earth
by sprinkling it with onion-juice, and the wonderful
secret mentioned by Avicenna was of similar nature.
Aristotle more truly taught that scorpions are generated
by the union of the males with the females, which do not
lay eggs subsequently, as is the habit of many other in-
sects, but bring forth the young scorpions alive and per-
fect according to their species.
I also made frequent experiments with scorpions.
Having ordered a large quantity of them to be brought
to me from the mountains of Pistoia, I selected some fe-
males, which are easily distinguished from the males by
their large size, and on the twentieth of July I put them
separately into glass vessels, leaving them without food.
Some of them died before parturition but one of them, on
August fifth, brought forth, not as according to Pliny
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54 GENERATION OF INSECTS
and Aristotle only .eleven, but as many as thirty-eight
young scorpions, well-formed and of milk-white color,
that changed to a rusty red, and on the sixth day of the
same month another female, enclosed in another vessel,
brought forth twenty-seven young of the same color as
the first. The young behaved in the same manner, re-
maining attached to the back and the belly of the mother.
They were alive up to the nineteenth day, but from that
time they began to die, and only two were alive on the
twenty-fourth day of August, after which they were also
found dead. In the meanwhile, in order to ascertain
how the insects were placed in the abdomen of the mother
before birth, I cut open several females and found that
there were never less than twenty-four nor more than
forty young inside. These were all united in a row, and
covered with an almost invisible membrane, through
which the scorpions could be distinctly seen, each one
being separated from the other by a very fine thread, a
thickening, as it were, of the membrane itself. On this
occasion I perceived that there was no truth in the re-
ports of Aristotle and A. Caristio that the mothers are
killed by the newborn young, nor, as Pliny relates, that
the young are all killed by the mother, with the exception
of one more clever than the rest, who runs up on his
mother's back out of reach of her sting, and afterwards
avenges his brothers' death by killing his parent. I took
pains to verify Rodio's statement concerning a second
litter following the first in a short time, but I did not
succeed in observing anything further, nor, on opening
the bellies of some pregnant females, did I see anything
but the usual string of white scorpions. Still it is not
impossible that the females had already brought forth
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SCORPIONS 55
many litters, and that I had always chanced upon the
last.
I would not like to have you believe, Signor Carlo, that
there is such a scarcity of scorpions in our Italy as Pliny
says obtained in his time, writing in book eleven of his
Natural History: " Saepe Psylli, qui reliquarum venena
terrartun invehentes, quaestus sui causa peregrinis malis
implevere Italiam, hos quoque importare conati sunt.
Sed vivere intra Siculi coeli regionem non potuere. Vi-
suntur tamen aliquando in Italia, sed innocui;" — for
even to-day in the city of Florence alone, nearly four
hundred pounds are consumed in the making of oil as an
antidote to poison. I believe, however, that Pliny was
right in affirming that the Italian scorpions are not poi-
sonous, as I have often seen the peasants carry them
about for sale in Florence, and handle them freely, thrust-
ing their bare hands into the sacks and, though frequently
stung, show no signs of poison. And yet all the Tuscan
scorpions are of the kind that have six joints, or vertebrae,
in the tail, which Avicenna considered more poisonous
than others.
I do not wish to neglect telling you that, as the Italian
scorpions which I have examined, have only six joints
in the tail, the same is so with the scorpions of Egypt,
as I noticed in the case of those which were sent in the
year 1657 to my Lord, the Grand Duke. There is, how-
ever, no little difference between ours and the foreign
ones: though both are of the same blackish color, the
Eg)rptian scorpions are much larger and fuller than the
others. Having placed in the scales an Egyptian scor-
pion, cleansed of its entrails, I found that it weighed
twenty grains, while one from Italy on being weighed,
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56 GENERATION OF INSECTS
scarcely reached five. The joints in the tail of the
Egyptian scorpion are all of almost equal length and size,
but in our kind the fifth vertebrae before the sting is al-
ways twice as long as the others. I have seen another
species of scorpion somewhat different from the two
kinds above mentioned. This was sent to me from the
kingdom of Tunis by Dr. Pagni, a celebrated professor
of medicine in the famous Pisan Academy, who is at
present in Africa. Tunis produces these scorpions most
abundantly: they are called "akrab" in the Berber
tongue and are larger than the Egyptian kind. Once I
weighed two live ones, each of which attained to the fifth
part of an ounce, and they were lighter than usual owing
to long deprivation from food. ' Their color is mostly of
a faded yellow green, almost transparent like amber, ex-
cept in the two claws, which are of a dirty color like
chalcedony ; the point of the sting is quite black. There
are some white ones, but black ones are rare. The claws
are made up of four joints. The legs are eight in num-
ber, and the two nearest the claws are shorter than the
others ; the second pair are longer than the first, and the
third, longer than the second ; the fourth are longer than
all the others. The whole back is made up of nine joints
and in the part between the two branches of the claws
can be seen two very small, round eminences, which are
black and shiny. Under the belly, which is composed of
five joints, there are two dentated blades, that look ex-
actly like saws, which, when the scorpion walks, he dis-
tends and agitates as if he wished to use them as wings.
The tail has six vertebrae or joints, and the last of these
is the sting, very large and hooked. The other five ver-
tebrae at the upper end are hollowed out with dentated
edges, and underneath they are round, convex and
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SCORPIONS 57
marked longitudinally with raised lines made of black
dots. These Barbary scorpions hold the tail up and
arched over the back not only when in a crouching posture
but also when they walk. This seems to be a common
trait of all the other kinds. Hence Tertullian writes in
the " Scorpiacus " :
" Arcuato impetu insurgens hamatile spiculum in sum-
mo, tormenti ratione, restringens ;" and Ovid in Bode
fourth of the " Fasti " : " Scorpius elatae metuendus
acumine caudle."
There is a great dispute among writers whether the
point of the sting has any aperture from which a drop of
venomous liquid might issue when the scorpion wounds ;
and indeed the point is. so polished and fine, that it is
impossible for the eye to discover if it be really pierced.
Galen said that there is no hole or aperture of any
kind. On the other hand, Pliny, Tertullian, St. Jerome,
Aldrovandi, and many moderns have held that the
scorpion not ^ly pierces with the point of his needle,
but also pours a liquid venom out of it into the wound
thus caused. And Master Domenico Bandino of Arezzo,
famous in his time as a writer of many ponderous works,
some of which I have in manuscript in my library, as-
serted that the venom from the scorpion's needle is a
thin white fluid. The poets say, on the contrary, that
it is black: . . . "nigrumque gerens in acumine
virus f sang one of them. In order to be clear as to the
truth, I selected from a great number of microscopes,
belonging to His Serene Highness, the Prince of Tus-
cany, two of the finest^ one of Roman and the other of
English workmanship, with the aid of which I in vain
attempted to discover the opening in the spear end of the
sting of the Tunisian, Egyptian, and Italian scorpions;
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58 GENERATION OF INSECTS
and if I had given credence only to what was dis-
closed to me and my friends by these extremely fine
instnunents, I would have certainly declared that there
was no aperture in the sting. But I was not satisfied
with this evidence and therefore began to squeeze the
scorpion's weapon; nor did this means at first suc-
ceed, as it was of a hard, crustaceous substance, which
would not be compressed so as to allow the con-
tents to squirt out. I irritated the scorpion and
excited him to attack a steel blade with his sting, but no
sign was left on it of any liquid. I was about to re-
nounce further experiment and return to Galen's opin-
ion, when suddenly there appeared on the point of the
sting a very small, ilmost invisible drop of white water,
which I have since observed many times, when the scor-
pion is irritated and makes attacks with his tail.
When I was making these experiments, one of the
Tunisian scorpions was killed by one of his companions ;
I thereupon took the sting and punctured forthwith the
breast of a pigeon with it four times; to the surprise of
the onlookers there seemed to be no effect whatever from
the punctures, and a slight doubt as to the venomosity
of the Berber scorpions began to take hold of me. Dr.
Pagni, mentioned above, writes to me from Tunis, that
the Moors of the cotmtry constantly affirm that no year
passes in which many men are not stung by scorpions,
and that their poison is terrible and acts with incredible
rapidity. Some time ago, says my friend, one Pietro da
Santis, a merchant of Tunis, who was wounded by one
of those little beasts in the left foot, suffered atrocious
pains not only in the affected part, but along the whole
thigh up to the shoulder. The man made great lamenta-
tion, and imagined that his whole left side was paralyzed.
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POISON OF SCORPIONS 59
He was indeed lucky to get well after so much scarifica-
tion of the wounds and repeated doses of teriac, with
which also his whole foot was plastered, besides being
treated with many other medicines.
Pagni also writes that the Berbers have the habit of
carrying on their persons, or of affixing to the doors
of their houses, a kind of bulletin made of a square piece
of sheepskin on which are written certain Arabic names,
together with seals ^nd amulets. Such a superstitious
preventive as those ridiculous bulletins coupled with an-
other supposedly infallible remedy used by African physi-
cians, i. e. giving water to drink, contained in fanciful
cups of Unicorn horn, all this, I say, increased my doubt,
but I did not dare to express it in view of such deeply
rooted belief; still I resolved to persevere in the solution
of the problem. Having prepared a live scorpion in such
a way that he could not hurt me, and having thoroughly
exasperated and irritated him, I forced him to sting the
breast of a pigeon, several times, but, to the astonishment
of many spectators, the bird showed no symptom of
poisoning ; the same can be said of a chicken and a puppy
upon which I experimented.
Here I can foresee the onslaught of an army of phi-
losophers, physicians, and writers of natural history, who,
holding up their arms in the sign of the cross to conjure
the evil, call out to me scornfully that the scorpion does
kill not only small animals, but will not let even the
largest and fiercest alone. He attacks the lion, and, ac-
cording to Dr. Kemal Eddin Muhammed Ben Musa Ed-
demiri, he is not afraid of camel nor elephant. Others of
these learned men tell me with an ironical smile, that it
was no great wonder that the animals struck by my
Tunisian scorpion did not die, since the scorpion had been
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6o GENERATION OF INSECTS
shut in a vessel without food for four months, and hence
had lost his venomous spite. Furthermore, as the ex-
periment was made in the month of November, they
recall to my mind, that Tertullian, who was bom in
Africa himself, in speaking of scorpions said : " Famil-
iare periculi tempus -^stas ; Austro et Af rico saevitia veri-
ficat."
They also beg me to remember the saying of Macro-
bins, in the first book of the " Saturnalia," " Scorpius
hyeme torpescit, et transacta hac, aculeum rursus erigit
vi sua, nullum natura damnimi ex hyberno tempore per-
pessa." My critics would also remind me of the state-
ment of Leo Africanus, who relates that scorpions are so
abundant and so annoying in the city of Pescara in
Africa, that the inhabitants are obliged to leave during
the Summer, returning only in November. This last ob^
jection is not only well founded, but it is also true, and
proved by experiment, as I shall relate to you now.
The same scorpion, whose sting had no poisonous ef-
fect in November, continued to live throughout the Win-
ter, being imprisoned in a glass vessel. In the month
of January it had become so dull and drowsy that it
looked as if about to die, but in February, though still
without food, it began to revive and to take on strength;
as it happened that I was then with the Court at Pisa, I
decided on the twenty-third of February to try whether
the scorpion had also renewed its poisonous and deadly
powers. Monsieur Charles Maurel, a famous French
surgeon, happened to come to see me on that morning,
and in his presence I made the following experiment.
Having plucked the feathers from the breast of a pigeon,
I thrust the sting of the angry scorpion into its bare
and bleeding flesh. Three times this was repeated ; then
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POISON OF SCORPIONS 6l
the pigeon began to tremble and to move around in a
circle with frequent gasps and palpitations. At four
o'clock it fell to the ground, where it remained in con-
vulsions tintil six o'clock, when it stretched out its legs,
stiff and cold, as if the lower part were already dead;
some tremors and movements of the head and wings
still continued until eight o'clock, when the pigeon died ;
five hours having elapsed since it was wounded. As
soon as it was dead, I received a visit from the erudite
and celebrated Signor Nicholas Steno, who was anxious
to observe the state of the entrails of the poisoned
pigeon. At his advice I repeated the experiment, the
second pigeon dying in half an hour. A third experi-
ment followed, in which the wounded pigeon not only
did not die, but seemed to feel no ill effects from the
treatment. Thereupon I concluded to allow the scorpion
to rest and recuperate its strength. In the meantime,
I observed that the dead pigeons had not become swollen,
nor did the wounds appear livid, neither was there any
change in the state of the entrails. The blood, however,
though remaining liquid had collected in large quantities
in the ventricles of the heart, which seemed tumid and
bloated, without having changed color in the least.
Having had frequent proof that animals killed by a
snake's bite, or by tobacco, which is a terrible poison,
can be eaten with impunity, I gave these pigeons to a
poor man, who was overjoyed, and ate them with great
gusto, and they agreed with him very well.
Having allowed the scorpion to rest until the follow-
ing day, which was the twenty-fifth of February, at four
o'clock I pierced the side of a deer with it? sting, five
times, and also punctured the buttocks, where the skin
is less thick and is hairless. But the deer did not suffer
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62 GENERATION OF INSECTS
from the prick. I observed that in these experiments,
the scorpion of its own accord having twice stung the
deer, did not succeed in penetrating the skin of the ani-
mal; this had to be done with my aid Therefore I
doubt whether the Barbary scorpions have the power to
kill such thick skinned animals as lions, elephants, camels,
etc., still I must rely on the good faith of the writers,
who make these assertions, all the more as I must take
into consideration that the scorpion, with which I made
all these experiments, was out of his native land, and
had been more than eight months without food, hence
was weak and worn out.
In the case of the deer and the pigeon that were not
killed, it is possible that the scorpion's supply of poison
had been exhausted and he had not time to renew it.
After some more experiments with different animals that
resulted ineffectually, my scorpion died, so that I have
not been able to determine whether a week's rest would
have enabled him to renew his supply of poison. But
I hope, nevertheless, to make all this clear with time,
and also to explain other curious things about these
strange little animals, so I have sent to Tunis and to
Tripoli for a supply, and I am sending you a drawing
of them in natural size.
To conclude my remarks on scorpions, I must add
that the account of some of Pliny's followers, i. c., that
dead scorpions come to life on being moistened with the
juice of white hellebore, is an old wife's tale. As for
Avicenna's assertion that a scorpion will fall dead if
confronted with a crab to which a piece of sweet basil
has been tied, it is likewise false, and having proved it
so, I passed on to further experiments.
I killed half a pound of scorpions and exposed them
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POISON OF SCORPIONS
63
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64 GENERATION OF INSECTS
to the sun in an open glass vessel. In a short time they
grew wormy, the worms being transformed as usual
into black eggs [pupae], from which, after an interval
of fourteen days, an equal number of large, striped flies
came out. As Father Kircher had stated that scorpions
are reborn from dead scorpions themselves, if exposed
to the sun and sprinkled with sweet basil and water, I
risked a second and a third experiment, only to be dis-
appointed and to await in vain the desired young scor-
pions, instead of which I always got flies ; and when at the
fourth attempt I saw neither worms, flies nor scorpions
I was still further strengthened in my opinion that no
animal of any kind is ever bred in dead flesh unless there
be a previous ^;g-deposit.
This was a favorable opportunity for proving the state-
ment of Batista Porta, that the toad is generated from
a duck putrefying on a dung-heap. Three experiments
with this material brought no result, hence I was con-
vinced that Porta, otherwise a most interesting and pro-
fotmd writer, had been too credulous. And Avicenna was
none the less so, for he would have it that women's hair,
lain in a damp and sunny place, would turn into snakes.
Now, I believe that snakes are only generated by means
of coition, and all other kinds of serpentine creation,
from rotten matter, or by other process mentioned by
writers, are utterly false.
The story of Kiranis, that the tim-fish thrown up by
the sea on the shore of Libya produces worms, that
change to flies first, then to grasshoppers, and finally
to quails, is not to be credited. No one in these days
would be so ignorant or so stupid as not to laugh at such
tales. Still, though I am, as you know, accounted the
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MYTHS DISPROVED 65
most incredulous man in the world with regard to nat-
ural phenomena, I desired to ascertain with my own
eyes what the tun-fish might be capable of producing;
but I had the usual result, and found only worms, which
changed into flies, according to their species. I remem-
ber also that, wishing to see what effect oil had on the
worms, as it is so pernicious to insects, I selected some
of the largest worms bom in the tun-fish and dipped
some into vinegar, some into lemon-juice, and others
into oil, sugar, salt and saltpetre. I found that all lived
and followed their usual transformations excepting the
worms covered with oil; the flies of these died on escap-
ing from the shell, and some of them before leaving it.
Hence I argued that the assertions of Galen, Lucian, A.
Aphrodisius, U. Aldrovandi, and Sperling were cor-
rect: i. e., flies die on coming in contact with oil. Indeed,
it was wonderful to see how quickly a fly died when I
dropped oil on it Aldrovandi and Sperling also add
that flies killed in this manner return to life if left in
the sun or sprinkled with hot ashes. Not caring to ac-
cept a mere assertion, I had the curiosity to verify it
with my own eyes, but I never had the good luck to
see a single fly return to life, though I repeated the ex-
periment several times. Then, again, I had read JElianus,
Pliny, and some modems, who state that these same crea-
tures, after having been drowned in water, revive on ex-
posure to the mild heat of ashes. In order to prove this,
I placed eight ordinary flies in a glass jar, well filled
with iced water; after half an hour I found that one*
had gone to the bottom, and one of those floating
seemed to be still alive; the other seven were apparently
dead. I took all out of the water and placed them in
the sun; scarce half a minute passed when two began
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66 GENERATION OF INSECTS
to move and seemed to be about to fly away; of the other
six, the one which had gone to the bottom, and three
others that had floated on top, gave signs of life after
three minutes by moving their legs and thrusting out their
proboscides, but soon after they ceased all motion, and
were really dead. A few days after, I made many ex-
periments, keeping the flies in the water for longer or
shorter periods; the water being sometimes iced and
sometimes of ordinary temperature; sometimes I held
the flies under the water ; then again I would allow them
to float At last I ascertained that if the flies be really
drowned they cannot be restored by the potency of the
sun. Hence, I cannot see how it is possible to believe
Columella, who reports that bees found lying dead under
the beanstalks and which are kept all Winter in a dry
place, return to life if, during the mild season of the
equinox, they are exposed to the sun and powdered with
fig-tree ash. I have not made this experiment, but I
esteem it to be beyond belief.
I return to the flies hatched in the tun-fish : these, like
all the others, on escaping from the shell began to ex-
crete the natural abdominal impurities that are due, I
believe, to the food consumed by them while they were
still worms, in which state I noticed that they never ex-
crete anything. The flies do not live more than four
days after birth, when retained in the closed jars with-
out food ; but this is not an unusual rule in Nature.
What seems more strange is that spiders, bom in
dosed jars from the eggs of the same, can live so many
months without apparent food. On the fifth of July I
shut up a female spider in a glass jar covered with paper,
and I observed that on the twelfth she had spun herself
a nest on the lower part of the paper, in the shape of half
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SPIDERS 67
a nutshell, and in the cavity of this structure, called by
Aristotle " seno orbiculato," there could be seen through
the web-work round white eggs not larger than millet
grains. From these eggs there hatched out on the last
day of August a like number of tiny white spiders, which,
immediately after birth, began to emit filaments. During
the following two days all the eggs hatched, fifty in num-
ber, and in order to see how long the young spiders could
live without food, I did not put anything eatable in the
jar; hence, on the eighth of September, some of them
died, and in the first week of October nearly all were
dead, except three, which remained alive together with
the mother, which in turn died on the thirtieth of De-
cember. The young ones, having noticeably increased
in size, lived until the eighth of February. If you asked
me why these three grew and became larger I should
probably find a reason in their having obtained nourish-
ment from the bodies of their dead brothers and mother
by slightly sucking them; or if this were not so, the ex-
pansion of their bodies might make them appear to have
really grown. However, I hold to the first opinion more
than to the second, and it does not trouble me that peo-
ple believe, and writers assert, that no animal will eat
individuals of its own species, since I have found by
many experiments that no fable was ever more fabulous
than this one, and no one ever heard a more lying false-
hood. I remember having forced a lion to eat the flesh
of a lioness, nor did he do it from starvation, for on the
same day he had eaten many pounds of mutton. The
most ordinary hunter knows by experience that a dead
boar left in the woods will be devoured by the live ones.
Bears eat bear-meat and tigers, tiger-flesh, and I can
assure you of a fact in proof of this. Meemet Bey,
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68 GENERATION OF INSECTS
General of the Tunisian forces, sent a large number of
strange animals from Africa to my Lord the Grand
Duke. Among these there was a tigress with a new-
born cub. On the way to Florence the good tigress,
whether playfully or in anger I know not, tried her teeth
on the cub and neatly broke off a paw and the attached
shoulder, which she swallowed greedily, although there
was other meat in the cage. Cats, on being castrated,
sometimes devour their own testicles, and females of their
kind eat up their newborn young. The pike, fierce in
pursuit of prey, does not spare his fellows ; indeed, these
fish pursue each other most greedily; and it often hap-
pens that a pike of seven or eight pounds will attack
one of three or four pounds. It is curious to watch the
larger fish struggle to swallow the smaller one, which
often sticks out of his mouth a hand's breadth, and for
an hour or so the victor will swim about in the water
in this way until the head of the swallowed fish enters
the stomach of the other, and becomes gradually disinte-
grated and absorbed, making room for the rest of the
body, which eventually slips in.
I enclosed other spiders, both male and female, in
glass jars, but. did not observe anything except their ex-
traordinary capability of living long without food. I
also noticed that one of the spiders, after a month's im-
prisonment, shed his entire skin, that looked exactly like
another spider; another waited fifty days before shedding
his. I am not the first to notice this peculiarity, which
was alluded to by the learned Englishman, Thomas
Moufet, in his celebrated work on insects, where he as-
serts that they not only shed their skin once a year, but
even every month; this I would dare neither to affirm
nor to deny, not having seen it. I thoroughly examined
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SPIDERS 69
the different forms of glands and sacks in which the fe-
males lay and hatch their eggs as in a nest, and I admired
the wonderful manner in which the threads were strongly
attached even to smooth glass. But I will not dwell on
this longer, nor on the labor and marvelous design of the
web, as so many writers have described it admirably,
and you yourself have written about it, in one of your
erudite " Tuscan Vigils," that is entitled, " Nature, the
Geometrician/' Moufet asserts that there are often as
many as three hundred eggs in those nests, and I have
counted one hundred and sixty from one insect, which
having deposited them all close together, wrapped them
with her thread, and built around the ball a larger, white
cocoon, in which it was left suspended. As the spider was
weaving this covering I noticed that the thread did not
come out of her mouth, but out of the end of the abdomen,
and I thus verified the statements of JElianus and Moufet.
Pliny wrote that the thread was kept in the uterus:
"Orditur telas, tantique operis materia uterus ipsius
sufficit." But Moufet, taking into consideration that the
males, which have no uterus, are able to spin as well as
the females, does not approve of Pliny's opinion and
taxes him with error. This is, however, wrong, because
the word "uterus" used in this occasion by the g^eat
writer is adopted by the Latin authors not only in the
sense of womb, but also in that of abdomen, as, according
to Isidorous 2nd. ist., "Uterum solae mulieres habent,
auctores tamen uterum pro utriusque sexus ventre po-
nunt" Therefore, Pliny did not err when he wrote:
" orditur telas . . . etc.," but Aristotle erred greatly
in contradicting wise Democritus, writing in the ninth
book of his " History of Animals," that spiders do not ex-
tract their thread from the interior of the abdomen, but
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70 GENERATION OF INSECTS
from the external part of the body in general, as though
the material of the filaments were a kind of down, that
covered them all over like bark. Aristotle was also
wrong in instructing us that spiders bring forth live
worms instead of eggs, for I have invariably found the
contrary to be the case. And though others write that
spiders are generated from flying seeds and from rotten
filth, I cannot induce myself to credit them, especially as
they only give the popular belief in the matter as proof,
i. e., that spiders and their webs are to be found in new
houses, before the plaster on the walls is dry; but mark
that houses are not built in the twinkling of an eye, as
Alcina and Atlantus built them, in ancient times; there-
fore it is natural that the spiders should have found the
dust and refuse lime a good place for making their nests,
and for hiding, and on coming out, they could climb
up any high wall in a moment, and weave their webs
there.
Another fabulous generation of spiders was given out
as true by various authors, among whom are Pietra
Andrea Mattiuoli, Castore Durante, and Fathers Kircher
and Fabri. Mattiuoli affirms that oak-galls produce spi-
ders as well as worms and flies ; he also says that all galls,
which have not been pierced, contain one of these three
kinds of small animals, from the nature of which he de-
duces a terrible prognostic, saying that flies in the galls in-
dicate war to occur in that year ; if worms are found, the
harvest will be poor ; if spiders, there will be a pestilence.
Father Fabri laughs at this prognostic; as for myself, I
could easily cite many experiments to confute Mattiuoli,
for in the space of three or four years I have opened
more than twenty thousand galls, and have never found
a single spider inside, but only flies and gnats and worms.
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SPIDER WEBS 71
according to the season in which I opened them ; nor was
there meanwhile war or famine in Tuscany. It is true,
to be sure, that I sometimes found a little spider in a gall,
but always in an open one, into which it had probably
crept for hiding. This I deem at present sufficient an-
swer to the assertions of Mattiuoli, but I reserve myself
to speak later on of flies, gnats, and worms found in galls.
It is a little more difficult to answer those who desire
to know how spiders succeed in taking the ends of their
thread from one tree to another, since not having wings,
they cannot fly. Moufet bears witness that spiders hop
and throw themselves from one place to the other, and
there is truth in this as regards any slight jump, for I
remember that a gentleman of high rank told me that
while he was traveling a spider spun his thread from one
side of the coach door to the other, and the carriage
having stopped, the spider threw himself suddenly on to
the hat of an approaching horseman. Thus it is possible
that they jump, and it may be also that wishing to stretch
the thread from one tree to another, they first attach it
to a branch, and then let themselves down by the thread
to the level ground, thence they go by way of the sur-
face to the foot of another tree, which they climb, drag-
ging the thread after them and stretching it at a suitable
height. A friend told me that one day he saw two
spiders hanging from two trees not far apart, and he
noticed that they jumped towards each other, and hook-
ing themselves together, they securely tied their threads,
and then proceeded to weave a large web. One might
also suppose that, when a spider makes a web between
two distant trees, it is by mere chance : that is, the spider,
dangling from the tree by the thread may be carried by
the wind to the nearest tree, and the thread not having
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72 GENERATION OF INSECTS
been broken, is able to make his web. Father Blancana
asserts that he has ascertained by experiment that the
spider's thread is not simple and smooth, but is composed
of many fine strands, so light that they float out in th€
air, in all directions, and catch in the branches of nearby
trees, of which circumstance the spider quickly avails
himself to make fast the first lines of the future web.
This is possible, provided that the spider hangs down
from a high tree. I have not had occasion to observe
this, though I have frequently seen the spiders stretch
their thread from one part of the highway to the other,
and attach the ends to the tops of the stakes that support
the vines, but since these stakes are not higher than
three or four yards, and the road is at least eight or ten,
wide, I cannot see how the spiders, from so low a height,
could acquire sufficient force to give the principal Aread
the required length, so that the lateral filaments could
reach the other side of the road. Everyone may think
as he chooses about this; for my part I must return to
my preceding argument and tell you that I collected a
large quantity of spiders, and, having killed them, left
them in a large, open dish, whither the flies eagerly
swarmed to feed and to deposit their maggots, almost
vengefuUy, so that the dead spiders soon became wormy,
and the worms having hardened into eggs or chrysalides,
from these flies hatched out, such as daily circle about
our houses.
Leaving this subject for the present, as it seems to be
sufficiently proven that flesh does not become wormy of
itself, I deem it time to pass to the consideration of other
things that have been supposed to produce worms; this
opinion being held not only by the common people, but
even by men of science. One of the most important
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CHEESE WORMS 73
things subject to invermination is cheese, and epicures
boast that they know how to grow worms in it to tickle
the palate, the recipe being one of those that I enumerated
at the beginning of this letter. But the learned Gassendi
suggests that flies and other winged animals having de-
posited or disseminated their seed on leaves and grass,
these being subsequently eaten by cows, sheep, and goats,
introduce into milk and cheese the seed capable of pro-
ducing worms. Many people do not dislike this theory,
nor do I deny it, but with all due deference to this illus-
trious philosopher, I cannot understand how those de-
posits could retain their special powers after having
passed through the complicated process of mastication
in the mouth, and of digestion in the stomach, of the ani-
mals that have swallowed them. What seed could hold
out, unchanged, against the double action of the pan-
creatic acid and of the bile in the intestines, whence in
the passage to the udder it is further acted upon? For
if Gassendi's idea were correct, one might expect to ob- \
tain mullet and eels from cheese made of woman's milk, \
if the woman had eaten the eggs of the same; or indeed, I
cockerels and pullets, if she had swallowed hen's eggs. /
Many women suck them raw, as they come from the /
nest, though even supposing them to have been eaten
cooked, by the woman in question, it would have made
no difference, for, according to Gassendi, cooking does \
not affect the generative principle, as witness the worms ^
that appear in curds, etc. It would seem more probable
that the invermination of milk, cheese, and curds is due
to the same cause that I have given above, in the case
of meats and fish, that is to say, flies deposit eggs in them
from which worms are hatched, which change into flies.
This will appear evident to anyone who considers the mat-
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74 GENERATION OF INSECTS
ter in the light of reason, for neither milk nor cheese ever
grow wormy, if they are kept in a place secure from
flies; this is sufficiently proven by the experiments al-
ready made, and the contrary happens in case of expo-
sure to flies. As I recall certain things that I have ob-
served in connection with the breeding of worms, I shall
relate them to you, leaving out such as appear superflu-
ous and tiresome.
I had placed half of a fresh cheese, the best to be found
in June, in a large, uncovered, glass dish; after a few
days several worms appeared in it, which upon examina-
tion seemed of two kinds; the larger were of the ordi-
nary sort produced on meat, and the smaller were of
the same shape, but had this peculiarity : they were more
spry and agile than the others; they moved about with
great ease, and would take their tails in their mouths,
thus forming a circle, or would skip here and there,
sometimes escaping from the vase. Three or four days
after birth all the worms ceased from motion, as usual,
and shrunk into eggs [pupae], differing only in size;
these I separated and placed in different vessels. After
eight days ordinary flies came out of the larger balls
[pupae], and from the smaller there emerged, after twelve
days, small flies resembling winged ants, which imme-
diately after birth skipped about with incredible spright-
liness and vivacity So that they seemed to be the em-
bodiment of perpetual motion. Then, every male pair-
ing with a female, performed those acts from which
propagation might be expected, but owing to lack of
nourishment they died after a short time. While mak-
ing this experiment I fortunately found a cheese that
had just begun to grow wormy, and after separating
the good part from the bad I enclosed both in separate
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CHEESE WORMS 75
dishes; from the good part worms were hatched, and
from those worms already in the bad part there appeared
numerous little black flies, like those mentioned above,
but not a single common fly. I know that it is hard to
believe that milk products do not breed worms spon-
taneously, for worms are often found in the heart of our
most delicate Lucca cheeses. I could suggest that the
eggs producing these worms were laid by flies in the milk
at milking time, when the milk is left in the pails to
gather, and is surrounded by swarms of flies. Hence
the Greek poet, "to whom the muses gave suck more
freely than to others,'* in the sixteenth book of the Iliad,
verse 641, compares the Greeks and Trojans, who were
fighting over the body of Sarpedon, to the flies that
buzz over the milk-buckets in the Spring. This reason,
though not without value, does not satisfy me, neverthe-
less, and I think it probable that the eggs were laid by
flies in the cracks of the ripening cheese, and the young
maggot, seeking the tenderest food, worked his way to
the heart of the cheese; escaping thence at the deter-
mined time, he seeks a place where he can fix himself for
the few days of transformation, whence he issues in the
flying stage, according to the type of parent.
Feeling that I have spoken sufficiently about this mat-
ter, perhaps even with too great prolixity and tedious-
ness, I shall pass on to tell you about those worms
popularly and erroneously believed to arise spontane-
ously in vegetables and decayed fruits, in wood and in
trees.
Know, then, that as it is true that meats, fish and milk
products kept in a protected place do not breed worms,
it is likewise true that fruits and vegetables, raw and
cooked, secured in the same way, do not grow wormy ;^
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76 GENERATION OF INSECTS
or in the contrary case, left in an exposed place, will pro-
duce various insects of different species, according to the
animals that have made deposits therein. But I have
noticed that a preference is sometimes shown for a
special vegetable or fruit in selecting the nesting-place. I
had seen many flies light on a melon that showed later
small worms, which, after four days, changed into eggs
[pupae] from which in four more days there were bom
an equal number of gnats.
In some pieces of mashed melon on which gnats and
common flies had been feeding, together with another
kind of fly, small, black, and with long antennae, there
were dropped worms of different size, that in due time
were changed into eggs [pupae] of different size. Com-
mon flies came out of the larger ones in eight days;
from some of the smaller ones gnats appeared after four
days, and from those of medium size were hatched the
largest flies of all. I had the same result in experiment-
ing with cucumbers, strawberries, pears, apples, plums,
lemons, figs and peaches.
In my experiments with raw and cooked pumpkin, the
common fly was the only insect that hatched. But I
must not neglect to mention that all worms hatched in
a certain preparation of boiled pumpkin and tgg, which
had reached the state of decomposition, acted in an ex-
traordinary manner, rolling themselves about in the pap
that stuck fast and covered them up, so that they re-
sembled little clods of earth from which finally the flies
were hatched. Now, anyone who did not know that an
egg was concealed in each ball would have reasonably
judged that those flies were hatched directly from the
little balls. • From some such illusion, I believe, originated
the error of Pliny and others, who relate that infinite
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FRUIT FLIES ^^
kinds of animals are bred in the soil, in mud, in swamps,
and in the bed of rivers. Thus Ovid, in the first book of
the " Metamorphoses " writes :
" Sic ubi deseruit madidos septemfluus agros
Nilus, et antiqua sua flumina reddidit alveo,
Aetherioque recens exarsit sidere limus:
Plurima cultores versis animalia glebis
Inveniunt, et in his quaedam modo coepta sub ipsum
Nascendi spatium: quaedam imperfecta, suisque
Trunca vident numeris: et eodem in corpore saepe
Altera pars vivit; rudis est pars altera tellus.
Quippe ubi temperium sumpsere humorque, calorque :
Concipiunt ; et ab his oriuntur cuncta duobus.
Cumque sit ignis aquae pugnax; vapor humidus omnes
Res creat, et discors concordia foetibus apta est."
This opinion was seconded by Plutarch, by Macrobius
in the " Saturnalia," by Pliny, and finally an inniunerable
host of ancients, who were followed like sheep by an in-
finite number of modem writers. Thus it is that I am
sometimes astonished in considering how these authors
conceived Nature to be so careless a generatrix, now
creating animals of flesh and bone, and then making
others of pure clay. But we have ^Elianus's word for it
that he saw animals made in this manner on a journey
from Naples to Pozzuoli; and Ovid, not content in the
above-quoted verses with having driven into our heads
his story of seeing animals in mud, without legs or joints,
clenches the fact again in book fifteen :
" Semina limus habet virides generantia ranas :
Et generat truncas pedibus ; mox apta natando
Crura dat, utque eadem sint longis saltibus apta/'
But what causes me most amusement is the statement
of Pliny that these same frogs, after a short life of six
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78 GENERATION OF INSECTS
months, return suddenly to dust and mud, whence they
again, on the approach of Spring, resuscitate to a new
life.
This thought of Pliny's has been approved by many
grave philosophers of our century, and particularly by
Father Fabri, who in his justly celebrated book on the
generation of animals, at propositions seventy-five and
seventy-six, admits that frogs are regenerated from the
decayed bodies of other frogs. At present I am not in-
clined to believe this, not having seen anything of the
kind;. but I am always ready to change my mind, espe--
cially if Pliny's frogs had happened to have been torn
and bitten by some hydra or other beast of serpentine
nature such as our divine. poet put in hell, and whose
bite utterly consumed one of the damned, the ashes of
whom, however, had power to gather together and re-
form the victim. But these are all fables. Those ani-
mals that apparently were made of earth, had they been
closely examined, it would have been evident that they
were merely covered with mud ; and though living things
do arise in swamps and mudholes, it is because eggs have
first been laid in those places, just as Aristotle and Pliny
tell of locusts and mantis.
Land-turtles also lay eggs and put them under ground;
and those that live in fresh or salt water lay eggs on
the shore and cover them with sand, where they arc
acted upon by the sun's heat, and hatch ; whence an in-
experienced person might conclude that the little turtles
were bom directly from the earth, from which they are
seen issuing. Something of this sort explains Father
Athanasius Kircher's curious experiment. This learned
man of letters, who is very ingenious in his speculations,
says as follows : " At the beginning of March, the frc^
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FROGS 79
deposit their eggs freely in the ditches where they live;
this humus, on becoming dry, turns to dust with its
contents. Hence, if you wish to create a new genera-
tion of frogs, you will proceed in this manner: take
the fertile dust of the swamp or ditch where the frogs
have made nests, moisten it with rain-water and put it
in an earthen dish in a place exposed to the warm rays
of the summer sun ; see that it does not get dry, and keep
it well sprinkled with the aforesaid rain-water, and you
will notice first of all certain little balls, that swell up
and emit a large number of little white frogs, which
have only their forefeet and a tail, that afterwards di-
vides into two parts, forming the hind feet; these little
creatures become perfectly formed frogs." This experi-
ment ought by all probabilities to succeed, but I have
never had the honor of being able to confirm it, owing
possibly to some lack of attention on my part, or to some
unknown obstacle, which, however, may be found in my
having carried out Father Kircher's rule to the letter,
using, namely, the dried mud of the ditches, to obtain
which I must perforce wait until summer-time, when
all the frogs were already hatched. I have, however,
observed that frogs and toads first appear after birth,
in the swamps and ditches, shaped like a fish, not with
forelegs alone, but without any legs, and having a long,
flat and sharp-edged tail; and in this shape they swim
about for days, feeding and growing; then they thrust
out the two forelegs, and after several days, the two hind-
legs, from a skin that covers the whole body; some time
having elapsed, they cast their tail, which does not divide
into two parts to form the legs, as Pliny and others be-
lieved. This fact may be proven by anyone who will take
the trouble to examine some newborn frogs by means
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8o GENERATION OF INSECTS
of a dissecting knife, when it will be seen that the hind-
legs and the tail are separate members of the body; and
if the frog be kept in an aquarium it will be seen to
swim about for several days equipped with its tail as well
as its four legs.
What shall I say in regard to those frogs or toads
which people believe are rained down from the clouds
in summer, or are created in the dust by the raindrops?
I have treated the subject at length in my " Observations
on Vipers," in which I said that those small frogs ap-
pearing during a shower have already been hatched sev-
eral days before, and have meanwhile hidden during the
dry weather among bushes, behind stones, or in holes,
and being of the same color as the soil, it is not easy to
distinguish them from the groimd on which they squat.
The fact, also, that their stomachs are full of food and
their intestines full of excrement, at the moment when
they are supposed to have been bom, appears to me a
clear contradiction of the truth of this account, which
dates from the 114th Olsrmpiad, and was recited in the
peripatetic school of Theophrastus Eresius, the successor
of Aristotle. A fragment of Theophrastus's book about
animals which make sudden appearances may be found
in the Library of Fozio, to which I refer you, as I wish
to speak of something else.
As I asserted above my disbelief in the statement that
animals had been found, in the fields inundated by the
Nile, that were partly composed of pure earth, so it is
equally difficult for me to believe that trees and plants
may produce creatures of similar nature, found to be half
alive and half of inanimate wood, as if incomplete; and
though the aforesaid Father Athanasius Kircher, in the
second volume of "The Subterranean World," writes
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ERRORS EXPOSED 8l
that he has seen such things, and has even shown them
to others, as occurring on branches of viburnum, brionia
and on twigs of the plant called horse-tail in Tuscany;
but I do not doubt that there was some ocular illusion in
the matter, and I do not hesitate to freely record my
doubt, knowing Father Kircher to be a sincere lover of
truth, who has spared himself neither mental nor bodily
fatigue in its eager pursuit. Thus I, having the same
object, write my opinion freely, being mindful of the
poet's words:
" If to the truth I prove a timid friend,
I fear lest I at last my days may end
Among those men who will on History's page
Be censured, for they were behind their age."
And this fear, together with my love of truth, impels me
to confess frankly that even 1, in days gone by, when
blinded by inexperience, have believed in things that I am
ashamed to remember now. Really, I must have seen
double when I wrote in my " Observations on Vipers "
that the heart of the snake has two auricles, and two cavi-
ties or ventricles, because a viper's heart has, in fact,
only a single auricle and a single cavity; though it is
true that the single auricle, when swelled, divides itself
into two trunks, as it were, and has internally a fine
membrane that almost divides it into two cells ; and it was
in exploring these two divisions with the probe that I
hit upon the error of the two ventricles, one of which is
really there, but the other was carelessly made with the
probe.
I had become so interested in the curious animals,
part animate and part woody, described by Father
Kircher, and was so desirous of finding some, that I
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82
GENERATION OF INSECTS
O SSIACAN TA, o
'^PINBIANCO
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TUMORS ON PLANTS
83
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GENERATION OF INSECTS
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^^ffWBo vrr^^^^
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MANTIS 85
made every effort in the search. Whereupon, on the
thirtieth of May, having received some branches of white-
thorn, which presented various deformed and knotty
growths, I hoped to witness the desired transformation.
I also obtained and closely observed similar growths on
branches of Fillerea seconda, and others on sprigs of
dematis, called vitalba in Tuscany, but I at last recog-
nized the fact that these growths are a natural freak of
the plants that occurs every year and does not produce
worms. You can examine the accompanying plates,
which I gladly send, especially as I believe that the freak
or sport has not been noticed before by any writer.
I hope it will not tire you if I describe another little
animal mentioned by Father Kircher, supposed to breed
in rotten cane and straw. While with the Court this
year at Artiminio, for the hunt, I saw on the broom in
the woods an infinite number of queer little creatures,
called by the peasants "cavallucci" [mantis]. I found
these to be of two sorts; some were green with two white
parallel lines running the length of the body, and the
others were rusty red, like the stalks of broom; both
kinds have little horns, with many articulations. They
move slowly and solemnly. They have six legs, and
every leg has three joints; the two forelegs arise just
under the part to which the head is attached. The head
is very small, less than a grain of wheat; the eyes are
hard and upturned, and smaller than a poppy-seed, and
are red. All the space between the last pair of legs and
the tip of the tail is composed and marked by ten rings,
incisions, or knots; and from the last of these knots,
two very fine spurs protruded. The whole body is not
longer than the width of five fingers, and is of the same
size from head to tail; though some are larger in the
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86 GENERATION OF INSECTS
abdomen, these are always females, and are large-bellied
in proportion to the number of eggs they carry. The
males, as well as the females, cast their skin whole, like
snakes, spiders, and other insects, the skin being nothing
more than a fine white tunic shaped like the body. When
these little animals were brought to me I was so fortu-
nate as to have with me Signor Nicholas Steno, of Den-
mark, a famous anatomist, as you know, and a man of
gracious and amiable manners, who is being rojrally en-
tertained at this Court by His Highness, the Grand Duke.
It occurred to both of us to examine the entrails and the
internal structure of these little creatures as far as their
minuteness would allow. We saw that a canal, starting
from the mouth and extending through the body to an
aperture near the last joint of the tail, performs the
functions of the oesophagus, stomach, and intestine ; and
around this little canal we found a confused mass of
many and divers filaments that are, perhaps, veins and
arteries. From the middle of the body to the end of
the tail we saw a large number of eggs, bound together
and enclosed in a sac hardly discernible on account of its
thinness. These eggs were not larger than millet grains,
and some were soft and tender ; others were hard. The
soft ones seemed yellowish and almost transparent; but
the hard ones, though yellow inside, had a black shell;
and taking them all together, black and yellow, in a
single animal we counted up to seventy. While we were
thus engaged we observed that notwithstanding the fact
that we had torn the entrails out of some of these ani-
mals, they continued to live and to move in the same way
as do disembowelled reptiles. Whereupon we cut off the
heads of others, and the head lived for a short time with-
out the body; but the headless body was extremely lively
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GRAFTING EXPERIMENTS ' 87
and groped about as if in full possession of its parts.
Then, just for a joke, and to amuse the company at the
Villa, we resolved to graft the head on the body again,
which we succeeded in doing with the same ease as the
enchanter, Orrilo, who put his dismembered body to-
gether, and of whom the epic poet of Ferrara thus sings :
*' Oft times asunder his stout limbs they hewed.
Nor could they thus succeed the man to kill.
For hand or leg cut off, with ready skill.
The bold enchanter, in its place, renewed.
His head does Grifon cleave, now, to the chin.
Now Aquilante's sword sinks to his chest;
He laughs at this blow as at all the rest.
In helpless rage they curse this Satan's kin.
Hast seen the slippery silver break and fall.
Called mercury by some old alchemist?
How fast it runs in many a shining ball.
Then joins in one, and not a drop is miss'd t
Thus Orrilo does seek his severed head.
Nor till he finds it, leaves off stumbling round;
Then seizing it by the long locks of red.
Or by the nose, straight on his neck 'tis bound.
Now Grifon hurls him, with a mighty hand,
Into the stream, but this does nought avail ;
Swimming below, without an ache or ail,
Orrilo crosses to the other strand."
Thus our little animals, with their grafted heads, lived,
not only all that day, but for five continuous days, to the
great surprise of all who were not in the secret. And in
that state they not only dropped their excrement, but
even laid their eggs. Hence, an overhasty writer would
have had many eye-witnesses to vouch for the truth of
this experiment, but in asserting the restoration of the
heads as genuine, he would be writing sheer nonsense,
for the heads adhered to the trunks by means of a green.
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GENERATION OF INSECTS
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INSECTS IN DECAYED PLANTS 89
VISCOUS fluid, that oozed from the bodies, and on drying,
caused the parts to join firmly together; but though the
bodies lived, the heads gave no sign of life; the trunks,
with or without the heads, continued to live for five days.
In case you should have the curiosity to see how these
little creatures look, without seeking them in Kircher or
Johnston, I send them to you, here enclosed, drawn from
life, together with a drawing of one of their eggs, en-
larged by means of a very fine microscope. You will no-
tice that one end is oval and the other has a raised border,
which resembles one of those divided, wooden eggs,
that we use for boxes, and that screw together in the
middle,
I have gone from one subject to another, uncon-
sciously, and must return to my previous remarks about
the insects which appear to take origin in rotten plants;
and I assure you that I have seen worms occur in all
kinds of vegetation. Hence, it is not strange that Pliny
and Dioscorides should have vaunted the marvelous dis-
covery that macerated sweet basil, when exposed to the
sun, breeds worms. From worms bred in decayed plants
I have seen the common fly hatch out, and sometimes a
gnat But often from a single plant there would arise
many generations of small, winged animals, so minute
that Tertullian had good reason to call them: "unius
puncti animalia.'* I recall that, on hyssop alone, on lav-
ender and St John's wort, besides flies and gnats, eight
or more different generations of midges were bom. I
also found some worms on parsley similar to those that
change to flies, but they were all hairy, and forming a
circle with their bodies, would frequently spring about.
I was unfortunate in not observing their subsequent
transformations, as they all died before forming them-
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go GENERATION OF INSECTS
selves into eggs [pupae], owing, perhaps, to the chilly
season, at the end of November.
Hear now what Pliny writes in the twenty-first book
of his " Natural History " : " Another wonderful thing
occurs in the Isle of Candia ; here is Mt Carina, which is
nine miles in circumference, and flies are never found in
this district. The honey made there is never troubled by
flies, and is for this reason in great demand for medicinal
purposes.'* Zese relates the same thing about Attic
honey, and gives the reason that Attica has great quanti-
ties of thyibe, the strong odor of which is very disagree-
able to flies. M. Glica, in his Greek Annals, is of the
same opinion, but I have seen flies lay their eggs, or their
worms, in thyme, and have seen the young flies hatch
out of them ; and these flies would not only greedily eat
honey thinned with a decoction of th)mie, but would also
swallow an electuary composed of honey and leaves of
th3rme. Perhaps that story may have been true in Pliny's
time and on Mt. Carina, but to-day, in Tuscany, it must
be classed among fables. Therefore, in order to termi-
nate as soon as possible this long and tedious letter, I
will say again that as all dead flesh, fish, plants and fruits
form a good breeding place for flies and other winged
animals, likewise all kinds of fungi are suitable for this
purpose. I speak, however, of fung^ that have been
picked, therefore dead, so to say, and decayed ; for those
rooted in the ground and on trees, living, that is, pro-
duce another kind of worms, differing in every respect
from the worms, issue of flies; the worms coming from
fungi do not crawl along, but walk on their feet like
silk-worms, and have a short, blunt head, not sharp and
long, as in the other case. These worms, then, on at-
taining full growth, escape from their birthplace in the
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TWO METHODS OF GENERATION QX
fungus, and instead of changing into eggs [pupae], they
build around themselves a cocoon of silk, in which they
remain enclosed a certain number of days, when there
issues from each cocoon an insect that is occasionally a
mosquito, scMnetimes a little black fly with four wings,
and again a similar fly with an elongated abdomen, like
a tail.
Now, whatever may be the efficient cause that pro-
duces these worms in live fungus, I, for my part, believe
it to be the same that creates them in living plants and
fruits, about which philosophers hold most varied opin-
ions. Fortunio Liceto, in his book on the spontaneous
generation of living things, being convinced that the vege-
tative soul, more ignoble than the other, cannot produce
the sentient soul, believes that the generation of worms is
due to the nourishment that plants take from the ground,
in which, he says, there are many particles of the sen-
tient soul communicated to it by the putrefaction
of animal bodies, or by their excrement; he further
adds that from all bodies, living or de^d, many atoms
or corpuscles, pregnant with the sensitive principle, are
given off, fly about in the air, and attach themselves to
the bark of trees, plants, and to their leaves and fruits,
and subsequently cause the origin of worms.
Pietro Gassendi thinks that worms breed in the pulp
of fruits owing to the insemination of the flowers by
flies, bees, mosquitoes, etc., their seeds afterwards de-
veloping with the fruit, become worms. I could adduce
many other opinions, but they are all similar to those
enumerated at the very beginning of this letter, hence
I deem it opportune to omit them; but if I must disclose
my real feeling in the matter, I would state my belief
that fruits, vegetables, trees and leaves become wormy
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92 GENERATION OF INSECTS
in two ways. One way is that the worms come in from
outside, and, seeking food, gnaw a path to the very heart
of the fruit and the wood. The other way, which I
esteem worthy of credence, is to be found in the peculiar
potency of that soul or principle which creates the flowers
and fruits of living plants, and is the same that produces
the worms of these plants. Who knows ? Perhaps many
of the fruits of trees are produced with a secondary,
rather than a primary purpose, not as pre-eminent in
themselves, but as objects of utility, destined as a matrix
for the generation of these worms, which remain in them
for a determined length of time, and thence come forth
to enjoy the sunshine.
I think that my idea will not seem paradoxical to you,
if you consider the great variety of growths, such as
glands, galls, knobs, warts, etc., produced by oaks, holm
oaks, live oaks, and other acorn-bearing trees. In the
hairy tufts of the oak, and in the woody tufts of the ilex,
and in the galls of the holm oak leaf, it is manifest that
the first and principal intention of Nature is to create
therein a winged animal, for there is an egg in the in-
terior of the gall, and this egg enlarges and matures in
proportion to the development of the gall, and finally
gives birth to the worm, which, when the gall has reached
maturity, becomes a fly, that breaking the tgg and com-
mencing to gnaw the gall, makes a narrow and always
round road from the center to the circumference, and
abandoning its native prison, escapes and flies boldly
away in search of food.
I confess to you frankly that before making these ex-
periments in the generation of insects I believed, or
rather suspected, that galls were originated by the fly,
which, in the Spring, makes a small slit in the young
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GALLS 93
twigs of the oak and hides one of her eggs in the open-
ing : the gall arising thence ; and I thought that all galls,
glands, excrescences, etc., were never seen except on those
branches wherein the flies had deposited their eggs; the
galls themselves being a disease caused in the oaks by
the fly's sting, in the same manner that we see swellings
arise in the bodies of animals after they have been stung
by similar insects. I was also in doubt whether the galls
arose first, and the flies, on coming afterwards, deposited
in them some kind of seminal fluid that, pregnant with
procreative power, penetrated to the most remote parts,
and fertilizing them, produced the worm. But I re-
flected that there are many kinds of fruits and vege-
tables, which, though protected by their rinds or pods,
still are wormy; and I observed, also, that all ex-
crescences constantly arise in a certain part of the
branches, and always in young ones, appearing always
in the veined parts, and never on the smooth surface,
and invariably on the side of the leaf turned to the
ground, and not on the side looking skyward; having
also taken into consideration that, when the leaves of
trees on which grow vesicles or pouch-like swellings full
of worms first bud out, they are even then covered with
these growths, as can easily be seen, though they are
very minute; these vesicles grow with the growth of the
leaves, as anyone can prove to his satisfaction by ob-
serving the excrescences on the leaves of the elm, the
wild plum, the ilex, and the lentisk. For further ex-
ample, the holm oak produces some bunches of flowers
from which arise the same number of red berries, each
of which engenders three or four worms, enclosed in a
separate cell. The same tree produces another bunch of
flowers, from which arise several greenish-yellow calices.
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94 GENERATION OF INSECTS
having a woody base and soft rim ; all these calices make
their worms, which come out in the shape of winged
animals. Hence, I have changed my opinion, and I think
it probable that the generation of worms in trees does not
occur fortuitously, nor does it proceed from the eggs
deposited by flies, especially as every gall or growth has
its own peculiar kind of worm, gnat, or fly, which never
varies. It is wonderful with what consummate skill Na-
ture forms the egg and prepares a place for it ; admirable
is the industry and patience with which she surrounds it
in a network of fibres and filaments, connecting it with
the gall, like so many veins or arteries, which furnish
the necessary supply for the formation of the egg and
the worm, and the indispensable nourishment of both.
Though there are different kinds of galls which produce
not only one, but many worms, still Nature knows where
they are and provides accordingly, as she does in the case
of prolific animals, which give birth to numerous young
at the same time. It is also to be noted that the worm
of the gall receives a certain vital stimulus from the oak,
for if such a growth should be pulled as soon as it ap-
pears on the tree, and when the eye cannot perceive any
sign of an egg, this gall will not produce a worm, nor
yet a fly. If the gall is plucked at a later stage, when it
is larger, and the first beginnings of the newly-formed
egg can be seen, and the taste is bitter, things will go
badly, and the worm will not reach maturity ; but if the
worm does turn out well, it is because he has enjoyed a
full term of development that is invariable; though it is
true that different kinds of galls have different times of
maturity ; in some the insects are ready for flight in the
Spring, others in Summer, Fall, or at the beginning of
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GALLS 95
Winter, but certain others prefer to wait over a year or
two in their cells.
It would be superfluous to make any further remarks
on this subject, as some parts are not entirely new to
you, such as my experiments made at Artiminio when
the Court stayed there last year to enjoy the delightful
sports of the chase. So I will keep silence in good faith,
begging the continuation of your interest in another
work which I am preparing to publish, i. e., a history of
divers fruits and animals generated by oaks and other
trees. I firmly believe that I shall soon be able to satisfy
the curiosity of investigators of natural phenomena, be-
ing favored by the royal generosity of my Lord, the
Serene Grand Duke, by which means I have already been
able to obtain many illustrations for my work from the
skillful brush of Signor F. Pizzichi.
r'^^'IBefere returning to my argument, I cannot refrain j
I from saying that I dp not consider it a great sin against f
1 philosophy to maintain that the worms of plants are
/ created by the same natural principle that produces the
/ fruits of the plants; and although in some schools it is
; held as an axiom that the lower cannot produce the /
higher, I think this absurd, for it seems to me that the /
^ fact alone of flies and gnats being bred in galls is_suffi- /
\ cient to remove all doubt.\Besides, ^*^low ^* and " high '*
are unknown terms to Nature, invented to suit the be-
liefs of this or that sect, according to the needs of the
case. But even if it were true, as the scholastics noisily
assert, that the lower cannot produce the higher, I do not,
for my part, see what there is degrading or paradoxical
in the assertion that plants, in addition to their vegeta-.
tive existence, possess a sensitive power to which this
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96 GENERATION OF INSECTS
is subordinate, and which enables them to produce animal
life. Democritus, who, according to Petronius Arbiter,
" omniimi herbarum succos expressit, et, ne lapidimi vir-
gultorumque vis lateret, aetatem inter experimenta con-
sumpsit," did not disdain to concede sentient powers to
plants. Pythagoras and Plato were of the same opinion,
as were also Anaxagoras and Empedocles, if we are to
believe Aristotle's report in the first book on plants. But
the recreant Manicheans impiously went further, as St.
Augustine tells us, maintaining that plants possess a
soul; hence it was a crime to pull fruits or flowers, or
to tear off their leaves and branches, or uproot them.
Plotinus was more moderate, for in his writings, though
admitting that plants have the sense of feeling, he de-
scribes it as being of a dull, latent form as in the case of
oysters, sponges, and similar animals, that are called
" plant-animals " by the schools. I might cite T. Cam-
panella and many other moderns in favor of this opinion.
But I shall not bring in proof Pliny's account, that
Pythagoras commanded his followers to abstain from
beans, because the souls of the dead took refuge in them,
nor shall I tell you about the fabulous power ascribed
to these vegetables when macerated and exposed to the
sun, which according to the Chaldean philosopher,
Zareta, then give forth an odor similar to that of himian
semen, or if the bean-flowers be buried in a vase under-
ground, they assume the appearance of a child's head.
I shall not quote here the precise words of the Greek
text, because if you have the curiosity to know further,
you can find them in commentaries on L. Diogenes,
written by our mutual friend, the academician, Egidio
Menagio.
As further proof of the sensibility of plants, it will be
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SENSIBILITY OF PLANTS 97
hardly necessary to recall to your mind the allusions to
it by many poets. You remember the bushes of Thrace,
animated by the spirit of dead Polydorus, the Gardens
of Alcina, mentioned by Ariosto, and the enchanted for-
ests created by Boiardo and Bemi. At first, these would
appear to be bizarre fantasies, invented by poets solely to
amuse the public and to perplex the ignorant :
" But ye, whose minds are clear and of free range.
Seek for the doctrine, that perchance is hid
Under the veil of verses passing strange,"
Hear now Berni :
^'All precious things and things of beauty, all
Those of sweet savor, fine and delicate,
Uncovered in the hand should ne'er at all
Be borne abroad, lest, through some evil fate.
Such choice things unto filthy pigs might fall.
Learn then how Nature with covers ornate
Her divers products wisely does provide:
Thorns, scales, shells, pods, and rugged bark or hide.
Against the power of sky, of bird and beast.
She also hides her gold far under ground.
With pearls and jewels rare, that men, at least.
May not her secrets e'er disclose unbound.
How foolish seekers are, who gaily feast
Upon their treasure opened on the ground;
They seem to call on robbers and the Devil
To spoil them of their goods and do them evil.
For it would also seem that Justice wills
(Giving a meed of good to them that strive),
That he, who labors and much promise fills.
Should be a man of worth, no drone i' the hive.
As with 4eft hand a spoon of salt she spills.
The clever house-wife daily does contrive
To give to viands a still finer savor.
Though even in themselves, they lacked not flavor.
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98 GENERATION OF INSECTS
But when, at eve, the Odyssey you read
And learn of fearful wars you can't abide,
Where some fair god is wounded in the head.
Or lovely goddess — don't be horrified;
For Homer did not mean just what he said ;
The good man often to the public lied,
To misle fools, who, even with a glass.
Can hardly tell a horse from a dull ass.
Hence, for fair Reason's sake, do not stop short
At what you first perceive, but pass along.
Under the hull there's stuff of different sort:
To judge a thing by the outside is wrong.
By Jupiter ! You'll never come to port,
If you give ear to every tale and song.
Therefore, I pray, take up the hoe of mind.
Dig hard, and sweat — something, mayhap, you'll find."
But, who knows, perhaps Virgil, Dante, and the other
Tuscan poets, combined truth with fable in alluding to
the sensitiveness of plants. I know very well that there
is no conclusive proof on either side of the question, but
it is true that plants consume food, grow, and produce
seed and fruit, like animals. They eagerly seek the sun
and fresh air; they avoid unhealthy shade, twisting them-
selves aside to escape it, and perhaps, if they had legs,
and were not so deeply rooted in the ground, they might
flee from attack, or, possessing the proper organs, they
might complain and break into lamentations on being
injured.
I remember, in connection with this, that being in
Leghorn, in the month of March, I saw a sea-fruit,
round like an apple, that had taken root in the mud be-
tween the cracks of a rock. This fruit resembled an
orange in size and shape, and was of the color of pig
-fungi, but is called sea-fungus by the fishermen. Hav-
ing gathered it, and wishing to examine its internal
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FEELING AND MOTION 99
Structure, I began to prick it with a knife, and to cut
it open, when I saw that it moved and was sensitive to
the touch, as it shrank together, and folded itself up at
every prick and puncture ; yet in its internal cavity, whose
walls were milky white, there was nothing but clear water
of a salty taste, and some white filaments, that stretched
irregularly from wall to wall. And do not sponges,
which many learned men class among plants, also move
and shrink when attacked?
In cases of paralysis, it sometimes happens that the
sense of feeling will disappear in a limb, though the
power of motion remain, and inversely, there will be a
loss of motive power without any damage to the acute-
ness of feeling. Now, who could tell, in this second in-
stance, that the paralyzed and motionless limb had any
feeling if the patient had neither mouth nor voice with
which to state the fact and complain of the punctures and
lacerations made by the surgeon to restore his health?
Again, who would ever believe, on seeing the free move-
ments of another limb, that there was no feeling in it,
if the sick person gave no sign? Hence motion, wher-
ever occurring is not a proof of feeling, as many insist.
Let every one think as he likes, but in view of my experi-
ments, I am inclined to believe that the generation of
worms in live fruits, plants, and trees is not accidental,
but invariably of the same nature, and that all that class
of worms is afterwards changed into winged animals
according to the different species. And here I cannot
refrain from describing the birth and transformation
of one or two kinds, which may further elucidate my
theory.
Cherries of all kinds grow wormy on the trees, and
each cherry has always one worm; in a single cherry I
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lOO GENERATION OF INSECTS
have never found two. The worm is white, without
legs, and is conical in shape, like those produced by flies,
which I described in the beginning of this letter ; as long
as it remains in the worm stage, it is solely occupied with
feeding and growing, but does not make any abdominal
secretions ; when it has reached a certain size, it leaves the
cherry in which it was born, and seeks a place to settle
down, and here, little by little, it shrinks, hardens and is
changed into a small, milky white egg [pupa] front
which nothing hatches for a year, when, on the arrival
of Summer, a small fly escapes from it, which is black
and hairy ; the hairs on the head and back, though rarer,
are longer than those on the belly; on the back there is
a half-circle of a gold color, and the head is striped with
yellow also, from which proceeds a similar large streak
of color, that covers a large part of the space between
the eyes; the wings are white and covered with gray or
black spots, so beautifully arranged that they resemble
falcon feathers; there are six legs, also black, hairy,
and touched with gold at the joints. You will be able
to have a better idea of it from the accompanying draw-
ing, in which the worm is shown together with the
chrysalis into which it is changed and the fly, that
hatches from it; these appear in natural size and also on
a larger scale, as viewed through a microscope of one
lens.
Very different from the cherry worms, are those
which are found in green filberts, for these are shaped
like a half cylinder and composed of white semicircles;
the head is auburn and shiny; they do not move quickly,
and have six very small legs, placed in three rows near
the head. I have never been able to observe the trans-
formation of these worms into winged animals; hence
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CHERRY WORMS
lOI
it may be that they live and die merely worms. I have
often shut up some of this kind for a long time without
food,, and certain ones kept alive from July to November.
Other worms, not dissimilar, but larger, red and hairy,
found in red beets and leeks, also maintain life when
enclosed in vessels for a long time, nor are they ever
changed into animals having wings. It is therefore not
easy to determine whether the worms of the filbert are
generated by direct procreation of the tree, or whether
they have come in from outside ; in view of the fact that
all other plants engender, themselves, the worms it would
seem probable that the filbert should do likewise, on the
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I02 GENERATION OF INSECTS
Other hand, the argument that the worms enter from
without, is not to be waved aside, for it may be observed
that all the wormy filberts, from which the worm has
not already escaped, have a small hard projection on the
shell, that is perhaps the scar of the aperture made by the
worm when it was of small size, and working its way
through the soft shell of the nut, penetrated to its in-
ternal cavity; the aperture, after the shell grows and
hardens, closes, so that the worm, having grown, must
make another and larger hole when it wishes to escape,
which is indeed found in all filberts abandoned by the
worm. I am therefore in doubt what to believe, and
cannot come to a decision, although on the authority of
a very learned philosopher, I should be inclined to think
that the worms of filberts come from outside. This phi-
losopher is the famous Joachin Jung, of Liibeck, who re-
fers to this subject in his Memoranda on Physics, that
have been collected and printed with notes by Martin
Vogel, of Hamburg, a writer of great reputation, and a
friend of mine.
The worms of the plum are similar to those of the fil-
bert, but they move more briskly and with greater speed.
They stay within the plum, where they are bom, feeding
on the pulp and excreting, until they are perfectly grown,
when they abandon the fruit, and every worm builds
a small white cocoon of silk, from which it subsequently
issues in the form of a little gray butterfly having black
spots on the tips of its wings. The worms of the peach
and pear are of the same kind as those of the plum, and
make cocoons from which butterflies emerge.
Perhaps the question may arise in your mind : are all
kinds of butterflies generated by trees, or*do they come
from the parent through the stages of egg and worm?
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CATERPILLARS 103
The writers on this subject disagree, so I will briefly tell
you what I think about the matter, without reciting the
opinions of others. The males unite with the females,
and their fertilized eggs are laid in great numbers ; from
these eggs worms hatch, that we call caterpillars, and
in Latin " erucae." These caterpillars feed on the leaves
of trees and plants up to a certain time. In the mean-
time they frequently become torpid and cast their skins.
But when they have finished growing, some of them
weave a silk cocoon about their bodies, others do not
make a cocoon, but shrink up, harden themselves into
a chrysalis, and during this process they emit two or
three silk filaments, with which they securely attach them-
selves to a tree-trunk or stone; others of a different
kind, remain unattached and float in the air. Finally
the butterflies escape from the cocoons as from a tomb,,
every kind having its fixed period of maturity: some
come out after a few days, others delay for weeks, still
others for months ; and the caterpillars of the third kind,
after forming a cocoon towards the end of Spring, do
not appear as butterflies until the following Spring. A
certain kind of fly also proceeds from a chrysalis.
Do not marvel at all these strange births and trans-
formations, for we ourselves, are nothing more than
caterpillars and worms; hence the divine poet gracefully
said of us:
" Perceive ye not that ye are merely worms.
Born to create the angelic butterfly."
As I greatly desire to demonstrate to you the truth of
the foregoing statements, I have pleasure in relating here
a few experiments out of many that I have made with
caterpillars and butterflies.
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I04 GENERATION OF INSECTS
On the fifth of June, on my way to the Villa of Poggio
Imperiale, I saw a great many caterpillars crawling about
on the holm oaks, which border the road. Some of these
would descend by means of silky threads and on reaching
the ground, quickly pull themselves up again by the
thread. Having ordered a large quantity to be gathered,
I noticed that they were all covered with long hair, some
being black, and others red ; they were all spotted on the
back with fourteen dots. I put them in special boxes,
where they lived for several days on the oak leaves, then,
having divested themselves of their hairy tunic, it seemed
as though they were about to prepare a cocoon, but cither
from lack of material, or, as I believe, because it was their
habit, they did not finish the cocoon, but inside the net-
work of filaments, already begun, they changed into
chrysalides, that were first reddish, then blackish and
shaped like a cone, on the base of which a few hairs re-
mained. On the 26th of June there issued from them
some butterflies, formed like those that come from the
silk cocoons, with the difference that the last are white,
and the former of pale brown with black tracings and two
long antennae on the head, and a black silk tassle on the
end of the belly ; but on the twenty-eighth day the other
chrysalides opened and let out smaller butterflies, that
were entirely white; two of these having united, the
female laid a great many eggs, small and yellow, which
produced a like number of very small caterpillars in the
following May.
On the sth of July, I found a very large caterpillar on
a plant of nightshade. As soon as I had put it in an en-
closed place, it began to gnaw the leaves of the plant that
I gave it; and on the seventh day of the same month it
shed its skin, and remained in the shape of a red chrysalis,
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BUTTERFLIES 105
which grew hourly darker and finally blackish; from it,
on August second, there came out an immense butterfly,
which, on being irritated, squeaked like a bat. It was
of gold color and had black wings, back, and belly. Its
head was all black, and from it protruded two black
crests ; the eyes were brown and the black proboscis was
cartilaginous, and rolled up in front of the mouth in many
rings, as is the case with all other butterflies; the six legs
in the first section, or shin, attached to the thorax, were
all hairy and of dirty gold color ; the other sections were
purple; at the end of every leg there was a nail, claw, or
hook, which also appeared in all the articulations of the
legs. It lived only six days.
On the twelfth of July, an oak branch was brought to
me, on two leaves of which were spread in good order
more than thirty caterpillars covered with white short
hairs, and spotted all over the body with divers colors;
the head was brown and shiny, and crossed by the letter
Y in yellow. All these caterpillars remained motionless
and slept peacefully. Then, having placed them in a
large box, they shed skins, awoke, and immediately began
to devour the oak leaves; and they continued to feed on
these until the 22nd day of the same month, when, having
settled down in regular order in a comer of the box, they
again went to sleep and slept for two whole days, where-
upon having shed their skins again, and having aroused
themselves, being now much larger and more hairy, they
fell to eating with great voracity and held their own,
until the first of August, on which day they suddenly
left oflf eating and became stupid, torpid, and weak ; they
appeared to have dwindled in size; all their hairs had
dropped off, and they scarcely moved even when touched ;
to sum up, they seemed to be depressed or sick, re-
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I06 GENERATION OF INSECTS
sembling those silkworms that sicken and almost spoil
before they make the cocoon and are vulgarly called
"cows." In this state they remained until the night o£
the fourth of August, when six of these caterpillars,
having shed their skin for the third time, changed into
chrysalides of a blackish color, resembling so many
babies in swaddling clothes. I had occasion on the fol-
lowing morning to see the way in which these caterpillars
transformed themselves; the external skin opens at the
back near the head, separating from it and cleaving into
two parts, and from the cleft the chrysalis begins
to come out, writhing constantly, twisting, and contorting
itself, until it has pushed all the skin down to the end
of its tail; in the meanwhile the head grows noticeably
larger, and the tail becomes thinner, so much so that
when the process of transformation is completed, the
chrysalis has taken on the shape of a cone, is soft to the
touch and of a green color. But the green color, be-
ginning from the end of the tail, changes over the whole
body, little by little, and with this change of color the
skin hardens; the neck is the last part to change, but
when it has turned red, then all the rest of the chrysalis
has become black and has entirely hardened. This process
is begun and ended in scarcely more than half an hour, as
I have had ample opportunity to observe on many occa-
sions. When all the caterpillars were changed into chrys-
alides, which was on August sixth, they retained
this shape until the following Spring, and then near the
end of April, the butterflies were born : they were all of
the same kind, but did not appear at the same time, as the
caterpillars had taken on the chrysalis stage at different
times. Many of these butterflies, soon after birth, laid
their eggs to the number of thirty or forty at most.
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BUTTERFLIES 107
These were of a faded sky blue color, with a small black
spot in the center ; but as they had not been fertilized by
males, they did not hatch anything at all.
In September, at Poggio Imperiale, I ordered a large
quantity of greenish yellow caterpillars to be gathered;
they were feeding on cabbage-stalks. I put them in
boxes, giving them the same food, i.e., cabbage. After
four days, they all climbed to the lids of the boxes, and
fixed themselves there motionless ; during this time some
had laid minute eggs, wrapped in yellow silk. After re-
maining quiet for three days, they shed, not all, but that
part of the skin which covers the head ; then slowly they
began to change shape and the skin commenced to
harden; they remained firmly attached to the boxes by
means of silken threads issuing from the tail and sup-
porting different parts of the body. In this guise they
remained all winter, but towards the month of March,
many became dry and ceased to move when touched,
others remained alive, with the power of partial motion
and these, abandoning their shells that still held to the
boxlids, escaped in the shape of pale, greenish-yellow
butterflies, having two round black spots on the upper
wings and two yellow horns on the head. Being led by
curiosity to open some of those chrysalides that had be-
come dry, and had ceased moving in March, I found that
the shell was empty, excepting in the part corresponding
to the chest, where I discovered a reddish pur-
ple egg, full of mattei" like milk or white of egg. On
May nth, from all these eggs there hatched flies of the
kind that ordinarily inhabit houses. These were at first
heavy, dull and misshapen, like those, described at the
beginning of this letter, and which originated from
worms bred in meats. In the meanwhile minute eggs.
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I08 GENERATION OF INSECTS
laid by the caterpillars in September, hatched out very
small, black gnats, having two long, black antennae on
the head.
I tried a great many other experiments, and made many
observations, but owing to carelessness, some pages, on
which I had inscribed them were mislaid; hence not
wishing to trust to my memory, I shall pass on and tell
you that it is possible that there is some kind of tree,
which can engender caterpillars, undergoing the usual
transformation from chrysalis to butterfly. I do not af-
firm this, neither do I deny it, and in order that every one
may believe as he chooses, I will continue my report. In
the same year, at the beginning of May, I noticed a great
many berry-like growths, or little green balls on the rough
side of the leaves of the osier. These were larger than
a cherry stone, and towards the end of May became red,
sprinkled with white; they were but lightly attached to
the leaf and were yellow inside the large cavity, in which
a caterpillar was always found, that was very slim and
white, with a brown head, and was intent on feeding
and on excreting. From the beginning of June to that
of October, I continued my investigations to ascertain
whether the caterpillars come out of the balls and are
subsequently transformed into butterflies, but I never
had the good fortune to find a single one with a hole in
it. I was not able to make any discovery with some
that I enclosed in jars, for after ten or twelve days, I
always found the caterpillars dead in the hollow of the
leaf-ball. There is another kind of osier, that does not
produce these red balls in the leaves, but has instead
warts or knots on its branches, in which caterpillars,
similar to those mentioned above, are bred. I was
equally unable to find out the ultimate transformation of
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WILLOW GALLS ibQ
these. On May 29th, some branches of willow were
brought to me, on the leaves of which were small tumors
•or welts of green color, that were beginning to redden.
The welts were long and smooth like beans; they were
not placed like the osier balls on the side of the leaf
turned towards the ground, and therefore easily dis-
placed, but arise on both sides of the leaf that envelops
them, are situated near the large central vein or
nerve, and arc found to the number of two and some-
times three on a leaf. I observed several and found
that they contained a white caterpillar like the one found
in the two species of osier, and I observed also, that
many of these welts had been pierced, and in their cav-
ities there only remained the excrement of the cater-
pillar, which had already escaped; whereupon I became
hopeful of seeing the transformation but in vain; for al-
though I carefully kept my leaves enclosed in boxes, the
caterpillars would never come out, and after a few days,
I invariably found that they were dead. As you may
possibly be curious to see how the plants look that bear
the caterpillars, and of which generation the herbalists
have not made mention, as far as I know; I send you
drawings of them herewith, calling your attention to the
fact, that the smaller drawing of the caterpillar is its
natural size, and the larger, its appearance under a
microscope of ordinary power.
I do not know of any other caterpillars produced by
trees, but Father Kircher repeatedly states, in the twelfth
book of the " Subterranean World," that the mulberry
tree produces the silkworm, on being impregnated with
the seed of any chance animal, which penetrates the sub-
stance and the juices of the tree. In order to ascertain
the truth of this statement, I not only studied the trees
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GENERATION OF INSECTS
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WILLOW GALLS
III
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GENERATION OF INSECTS
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SILKWORMS AND CABBAGE BUTTERFLIES II3
around Florence with g^eat care, but also those of many
other Tuscan cities, but I was never able to see any sign
of such propagation.
Aristotle asserts that cabbages produce caterpillars
daily, but I have not been able to witness this remarkable
reproduction, though I have seen many eggs laid by
butterflies on the cabbage-stalks and neighboring grasses ;
these eggs developed subsequently into caterpillars and
butterflies.
Whoever has observed trees and plants will have often
found similar eggs in the cracks of the bark, and I re-
member, that at the beginning of May, I found a great
many tiny, yellow eggs on the leaves of the elder tree.
I took pleasure in observing what would hatch out of
them, and in a few days, I saw an equal number of very
minute worms come out of them,* which I immediately
supplied with elder leaves, that they greedily devoured.
They continued to grow and became a yellow color with
many reddish spots ; the tail ended in crescent shape, and
the head was very small and sharp, and when they
moved, they pushed out ridge-like protuberances, that
served the purpose of legs. The greater part of these
worms ceased from motion and left off eating on the
26th of May, without, however changing their shape or
color; but on the first of June, six of the said worms
shrunk together and rolled themselves into balls, look-
ing like eggs humped in the middle and pointed at the
ends ; they were of rust color. From one of these balls,
on the 1 2th of June, a fly escaped, not much larger than
the common fly, with two cartilaginous wings, white and
longer than the body; with six yellow legs, and two
short horns on the head, that was rust colored. The
back was of a lighter color with a large yellow spot
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114
GENERATION OF INSECTS
The rest of the body was yellow crossed with lateral
black stripes. As soon as the fly hatched, it began to
excrete a kind of white dung. It lived only five days.
The other five eggs hatched seven days after the first
and there came out from them as many flies, very different
from the one which had come out from the first egg, al-
though they were of the same color, in as much as these
five were long and slim with their wings very much
shorter than the body. These wings were not two, but
four. They had six legs, two of which were very much
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SILKWORMS, IIS
longer than the other four. From the heads came out
two very long pointed antennae, composed of many and
many knots. These flies, like the first, as soon as they '
were born, emitted a white substance, and lived four days.
I observed, however, that when these worms found on
this plant transform themselves, contracted in an egg
[pupa], the egg becomes smaller than the worm and
when from the egg the fly comes out, it is very much
bigger than the egg, to such a point that it seems impossi-
ble that it can have got into it. So one can believe that
it was very much crowded in it, and cramped. Because
my brain gives me little help in describing exactly these
small animals I send them to you drawn, and in their
own and natural size, and enlarged also by an ordinary
microscope of those of only one glass.
But as I have not been able to observe, as stated, that
the mulberry tree engenders silkworms, still less can I
expect to see them breed in the decayed flesh of a mule,
fed for twenty days on mulberry leaves. This fabulous
belief has been elegantly described by the distinguished
poet, Girolamo Vida, who sings in imitation of Virgil :
Quod si spes generis defecerit omnis ubique,
Seminaque anierint lovis implacabile ira;
Sicut, teneri reparantur caede iuvenci," etc.
I do not know what to say about this, but I do know,
by experiment, that the flesh of a kid, which had been
fed on mulberry leaves alone, for twenty days, did not
produce anything but worms, that were transformed into
gnats. I know also that worms breed in rotten mul-
berries, but always on condition that insemination has
taken place previously, otherwise, as before stated, noth-
ing will be produced in plants, carrion, or any other life-
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Ii6
GENERATION OF INSECTS
less thing. On the other hand, if the thing is alive, it
may produce a worm or so, as in the case of cherries,
pears, and plums; in oak glands, in galls and welts of
osiers and ilexes worms arise, which are transformed into
butterflies, flies, and similar winged animals.
In this manner, I am inclined to believe, tapeworm s
and other worms arise, which are found in the intestines
and other parts of the human body, also in the gall and
the liver of sheep; and likewise those other disgusting
little worms found in the head of deer and sheep. As it
may be a new thing to some persons, that worms are
found in the liver of sheep and in the head of sheep and
deer, I willingly undertake to briefly tell you what I
have observed, and herewith send you drawings of both
kinds of worms, of the larg est size to be found.
Liver-worms of sheep ar4 shaped like a pumpkin-seed, 1
r OrTniore exacOj^Tnce'T'small, narrow myrtle leaf with *
? part of the stem attached; they are milky white, with
j many fine ramifications of veins or canals. The mouth,
or whatever the opening may be called, is round and
placed in the middle of the belly, not far from the part
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WORMS IN DEERS' HEADS II/
that resembles the stem of the myrtle-leaf. These
worms are often found in the gall bladder and not only
live and swim about in the gall, but also inhabit all parts
of the liver excepting the arteries, in which I have never
found any. I think, however, that they are bom in the
gall bladder and make their way through the bile duct to
the blood vessels; then if they multiply excessively,, they
eat into the Inner substance of the liver, and make cav-
ities in it, which fill up with blood mixed with bile ; this
stagnates, thickens, and becomes of a rusty color mixed
with green, ugly and disgusting to the sight and very
bitter to the taste ; so that anyone, who saw this process,
would never care to eat liver again; though it must be
said that butchers c leanse the meat of all this dirt before
placing it on sale. [ ■ ^^., n,^*^^^^ -.
Aristotle, the great and wise philosopher, in chapter
fifteenth of the second book of the " History of Animals,"
describes the worms of the deer's head in these words :
" All deer have live worms in the head, which are born
under the tongue, in a certain cavity near that vertebra,
by which the head is attached to the neck. They are
larger than the largest worm, that originates in carrion,
and they number at most twenty." Impelled by curi-
osity, I made many investigations with old and young
deer, and found worms in almost all cases. On the 27th
of February, out of ten deers' heads opened for my ex-
amination, nine had worms in them, only a single one
being free from this pest Aristotle compares them in
size to the worms usually found in decayed flesh.
*' Because he's Aristotle, it implies
That he must be believed e'en though he lies."
But theae worms, of the deers' heads, seemed to me
incomparably larger, and not at all like the others in
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Il8 GENERATION OF INSECTS
shape; those that infest the deer are formed like a half
cylinder, are flat underneath and rounded above, of white
color, but marked with many hairy semicircular rings, in
which the hairs are rust colored. They have two very
small white horns on the head, which they extend and
draw in at will as snails do. Under these horns are
two claws or hooks, black, hard and very sharp; it would
appear that they use these hooks to crawl along, hold-
ing on by them, and dragging the body after. The end
of the body, whence the excrements are discharged, is
crossed by a duct, which is indicated by two black, semi-
circular spots. The number of these worms is not in-
variable, though Aristotle has limited it to twenty;
nevertheless I have counted as many as thirty-nine in a
single head, but never less than twenty.
Very similar in shape to these worms are those found
in the heads of sheep; but they are smaller, less bold,
and less hardy, and are only marked with transverse
stripes, which are very black and stand out vividly from
the white body. Only the large adult worms are thus
striped ; the small or young ones are all white. The two
black spots like half moons, seen near the excreting duct
of the worms of the deer's head, are perfect circles in
those of the sheep. These worms inhabit certain cavities
in the frontal bones, where the horns are set in. I have
found them in the nasal passages and in the cavity at
the base of the horns. Hence Caporali's agreeable
verses, in the life of Maecenas, wherein he alludes to the
nature of love, are correctly stated :
Some say that Cupid, God of all the Loves,
Is part a child in form and part a bird.
And like a falcon fierce feeds on the heart.
Still others say, as I have often heard.
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LICE 119
That He, whose wounds do sting, and burn and smart.
Is but a worm, like that of the sheep's head.
Which underneath the curving horn is bred.
And deeply gnaws the tissue of the brain ;
Thus does Love madden with excess of pain."
Shepherds say that, when at certain times sheep become
frantic, as if stung by hornets, their excitement is due to
unusual activity on the part of the worms, infesting the
head. They are not so numerous as those of the deer,
and seldom exceed twelve or fifteen at the most. And
here please remember that I limit my statements to those
things, that I have seen with my own eyes, and make no
affirmations nor denials concerning anything else.
That same vital force, that produces the worms of
which I have been speaking is the possible cause of those
other abominable and odious creatures called "<^^cipcs"
by the Greeks, and which infest the external parts of
men, quadrupeds and birds; but, if I must express my
thought freely, I will say that I am more inclined to
believe with the learned Johann Sperling, that they
originate from the eggs of the females, fertilized by
coition. And though Aristotle, followed by most mod-
ems, gave out that those eggs, or nits as they are called,
never produce any sort of animal, he most certainly
erred, for they multiply ad infinitum, and it seems use-
less to prove such an obvious fact. The hair of quad-
rupeds, and the plumage of birds, are frequently found
to be full of those nits, which, though so minute that
one needs good eyes to discover them, by the aid of the
microscope they can be seen very well, and the full eggs
be distinguished from those that have hatched. Any-
one inclined to dispute this fact, and to cry out that there
was some distortion, produced by the microscope, can
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I20 GENERATION OF INSECTS
find satisfactory proof in the eggs attached to the feathers
of the royal eagle, the kestrel, and the cow-bird, which
is also a bird of prey; these eggs are much larger than
a grain of millet, hence the naked eye can discern them
and even see the well-formed lice inside, as I have fre-
quently done, thus learning what a weak foundation sus-
tains the statement of Aristotle, and with what slight
effort it may be overthrown.
It might perhaps be affirmed, without doing injury to
the truth, that all kinds of living creatures are exposed
to this noisome pest, and as for Pliny, who wished to
exempt asses and sheep from it, I can excuse him, for
he relied on the report of another person, that is, he
believed in the statement of Aristotle, in the " History of
Animals," which statement was confirmed many centuries
later by Thomas Moufet, in his praiseworthy " Theatrum
Insectorum," in which, not wishing to refute the sayings
of that profound philosopher, and racking his brains for
an evasion of his dictum, he wrote that the ass does not
become lousy because of his natural disinclination for
exercise, owing to which he is rarely in a sweat. After-
wards, it occurred to Moufet that the above reason was
frivolous and of little weight, so he retreats to the last
refuge of logic,, namely, antipathy. In spite of all this
conjecture, it is a fact that the ass is subject to lice, and
I have reproduced these pests in the following pages,
together with those infesting the camel. The most ig-
norant shepherd knows that sheep are likewise troubled
with this vermin, and the Greek, Didymus, speaks plainly
on the subject in book eighteenth of his " Country Life."
And since his time, Jacob Alfiruzabadi names these
plagues in his great Arabic Dictionary, which was called
by the Egyptian title " Alcamus," that means Ocean.
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PARASITES OF MARINE ANIMALS 121
The above mentioned Moufet reports that even beetles
are tormented by just such ugly little creatures, and,
though I have not had occasion to verify this by observa-
tion, I am persuaded that it is true, as I, together with
many others can bear eye-witness that even ants are not
exempt; and that every kind of ant has its special va-
riety ; but it is necessary to have sharp eyes, armed with
a fine microscope to -discover the lice, for they are so
minute as to be almost invisible, and one might be
tempted to class them with atoms. The vermin of
winged ants are shaped like the lien's tick, which may be
seen drawn on plate 2, and those of wingless ants are
similar to the ticks infesting the turtle, which also may
be seen on the second plate.
Writers in natural history make an assertion, con-
firmed by all fishermen, that fish are also molested by
various kinds of insects, among which the best known
are the flea, the louse, and the sea-bug (cimex marinus).
Aristotle wrote of this in connection with dolphins and
tun-fish; others have affirmed the same in the case of
salmon and sword-fish. Pliny speaks of it in a general
way, saying: " Nothing exists on the earth which has
not its counterpart in the sea. Even those little beasts
can be found there which infest the inns in summer, and
hop about with annoying celerity, and also those, that
hide in the hair. When the hook is drawn from the
water, they are often on it; and these, they say, are the
pests which at night disturb the sleep of fish in the sea."
In order that you may more easily give your adhesion
to the authoritative opinions of these approved writers,
I will not omit to tell you that, in the month of March,
as I was seeking sea-urchins, on the Melloria reef, I saw
some little animals caught in the bristles of numerous
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122
GENERATION OF INSECTS
sea-urchins, which were of the same color as cray-fish
and were similar in size and shape to ** porcellini," though
they had no horns, but two very small black eyes and
sixty slim legs situated around the edge of their shell;
and I hold that Aristotle had them in mind, when he
wrote chapter 31st of book 5th of his most useful " His-
J^^^_£tM^£
tory of Animals." Several days later I found, in the joints
of the sea-locust's shell, another insect, called by fishermen
a sea-scorpion. I dare not say whether this was
due to accident, or was of usual occurrence; in either
case I am inclined to subscribe to the dictum of Aristotle,
who asserts that aquatic insects do not breed on the ex-
ternal parts of fish, but arise in the slime, which is, in
my opinion, the nest in which the eggs of insects are
deposited and hatched.
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BIRD LICE 123
Through the princely generosity of His Serene High-
ness, my Lord, the Grand Duke, I obtained a seal, last
winter, which lived out of water four whole weeks with-
out food, and would have lived much longer, if it had
not been killed for the use of the Pisan anatomical
theatre. During the time that I kept it, I tried many
times to ascertain if there were any parasites hidden in
its thick, soft fur, but I found nothing of the kind. On
the other hand, all birds that dive for prey under water
and haunt the swamps and pools, have great quantities
of lice, that live in their feathers all the year round.
As I have again mentioned the subject of lice, it will
not be inappropriate to speak more in detail of what I
have found out concerning them by means of many
experiments. Lice are found on all birds, and each kind
of bird has its own particular species. I found three
kinds of lice on falcons and on guinea-fowl; four on
wild duck, two on the swan, the royal wild goose, the
kestrel and the plover. It is however true, that some
birds have similar, nay even the same kinds of lice, for
the royal eagle has large ones such as are found on the
kestrel, shown on plate 13. The cow-bird has some simi-
lar in shape, not in color to those of the crow, which
are represented on plate 16, and the eagle has others
like the oval ones of the falcon. A kind of lice found
on the bustard, resembles greatly the long-bodied ones
of the falcon, plate i. The woodpecker has the same
kind as the starling, plate 2. The lice in the feathers of the
crane are all white, plate 3, with curious black tracings like
arabesques. The same kind, to a hair, are found in some
birds, kept in the Boboli Gardens, and lately brought from
Africa, where they are called " Bukottaia " by the Arabs ;
some consider them to be another kind of crane, because
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124 GENERATION OF INSECTS
they greatly resemble the common crane in shape and
color, though smaller and more slender, having besides
two long white tufts on the head, which makes me think
that they belong to the species of Balearic cranes.
All the foreign birds, kept in the above mentioned
gardens, have been examined by my order; but at no
time were any lice found on ostriches; a stork also was
exempt, but that may have been mere chance, as there
was only one stork, but there were twelve ostriches,
which had lately come from Barbary. The size of the
lice does not correspond to the size of the bird, as large
birds have both large* and small lice, and likewise small
birds have large lice, as I recall having found lice in
blackbirds, which were not inferior in size to those of
the stork.
Now when the lice are observed from above, the
mouth is not seen, but when they are turned over it
appears plainly, situated on the part of the head, turned
to the ground; it is fashioned like a pair of pincers,
similar to those arming the mouth of the wood-worm.
If you will take the trouble to look at plate 8, you will
see this portrayed in the engraving of the swan's louse.
The different kinds of lice are indeed so varied and so
peculiar, that instead of making a tedious enumeration
of them, I have preferred to show you some drawings
of them, made at my request by Sig. F. Pizzichi, which
I subsequently had engraved in the best manner possible
and consistent with the brief time at my disposal. As re-
gards the color of lice, it is very similar to that of the
bird's feathers, which they inhabit; but experience has
taught me and I firmly believe, that when the lice hatch
from the nits they are all white, but afterwards with
growth they slowly become colored, retaining however
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EXPLANATION OF PLATES 125
always their transparency, so that when viewed through
the microscope, and enlarged thereby, it is easy to see
the movements of their viscera and the liquids contained
therein. In order that you may surmise the real pro-
portions of these little animals, I will not omit to say
that in drawing them the same microscope was always
used; it is of three lenses and was made in Rome with
great skill and accuracy by Eustachio Divini.
With the aid of this single microscope, three kinds of
winged ants are reproduced in the following plates, also
the grain weevil, the worm that eats into candied fruits
and spice, the bug which explores the head and back
of man; and that other kind that lurks in the hairs of
the loin; the louse of the ass, of the camel, and that of a
certain sheep from Tripoli. There is also a drawing of
the tick of the wild goat, and likewise one found in the
tiger. The lion's tick has the same shape as that of the
tiger, but it is different in size and in color; the lion's
tick is much larger and is of a light yellow color except
in a part of the back, where is seen a splotch of dark
tawny color. The tick found on the tiger is entirely
of tawny color. I have had search made for lice on
tigers, but these animals were apparently not infested
by them, and the same can be said of all the leopards,
lions, bears, wildcats, ichneumons, and other beasts,
which according to ancient and royal custom, are main-
tained in the menageries of His Highness, the Grand
Duke. I do not deny that they may be subject to ver-
min, but I simply affirm that the animals at present in
the menageries are free from them, or else it may be
that sufficient care was not exercised in looking for
them, as meddling with lions and tigers is a business
that few care to undertake.
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126 GENERATION OF INSECTS
When I took up my pen I had in mind to write you
a suitable letter, but having exceeded by far its limits,
I know not how it has happened that I have almost
written a book, and in a rather dry style devoid of
grace. Hence I can with reason be blamed and cannot
offer any defence, but I would not like to be censured for
having given my opinion too frankly about certain state-
ments of the most famous masters of this and past cen-
turies; for every one is free to hold the opinion that he
chooses, and I do not think that I have said an)rthing
prejudicial to the esteem and reverence which I bear
them. On the contrary he, who is no tyrant, should not
despise the liberty of procedure that obtains in the Re-
public of Philosophy, whose only aim is the search for
truth, which, as Seneca said : " Omnibus patet, nondum
est occupata; qui ante nos fuerunt, non Domini, sed
Duces sunt; multum ex ilia etiam futuris relictum est."
I endeavor to gather up a small portion of this great
remainder, and my only regret is that I am unable with
my weak powers to produce results corresponding to
the great opportunities granted me by the princely
beneficence of my sole Lord, the Serene Grand Duke.
But it may come to pass, or at least I hope so, that some
day with increased knowledge and renewed strength, I
may be capable of presenting to so g^and a Patron
something not entirely unworthy of his royal great-
ness. In the meanwhile, be assured that this letter or
book, as you please to call it, has come to you not for
praise but for correction, which I heartily beg you to
give; being well aware that,
" My name unto the world is little known.**
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PLATES
127
POLLIMI DELL ASTORE ^
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128 GENERATION OF INSECTS
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PLATES
129
TAV3-
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130 GENERATION OF INSECTS
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PLATES
131
yOlXINO DELIA QARZa
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13^
GENERATION OF INSECTS
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PLATES
133
TAV7.
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134
GENERATION OF INSECTS
TAV.%
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PLATES
135
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136
GENERATION OF INSECTS
TAV; 10
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PLATES
137
TAy. n
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138
GENERATION OF INSECTS
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PLATES
139
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I40
GENERATION OF INSECTS
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PLATES
141
TAV IS
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142
GENERATION OF INSECTS
TAV 16"
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PLATES
143
TAV-P
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144
GENERATION OF INSECTS
PIDOCCHIO ORDINAR/O
TAV, 18
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PLATES
145
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146 GENERATION OF INSECTS
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PLATES
147
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148
GENERATION OF INSECTS
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PLATES
149
TAV 2.3
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ISO
GENERATION OF INSECTS
TAVa4
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PLATES
151
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152
GENERATION OF INSECTS
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PLATES
153
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154 GENERATION OF INSECTS
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PLATES
155
TAVOL; 'ip*
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INDEX'
JElianus, 48^ 65, Tj
Air admitted to flask containing
meat, 36
Aldrovandi, Ulysse, 43, 57, 65
Alfiruzabadi, Jacob, names lice
in the Alcamus, lao
Anaxagoras, 96
Anaximander, 23
Anima, 91
Anima mundi, 24
Antigonus Carystms, 38
Ants, parasites of, 121
Archelaus the Athenian, 22, 4a
Aristotle stated that nits do not
produce animals, lice, 119
Aristotle, S, 46, 69, 113
Ascidian, 98
Atoms, 25, 91
Barbary scorpions, 57
Bark, eggs on, 113
Bartholin, Thomas, 43, 51
Bees. 38-47, 49
Beetles, 50
Bellini, 7
Bemi, poem by, 97-98
Bible, references to bees ex-
plained, 44-45
Bibliography, 13
Biogenesis, 11, 26-^: dead ani-
mal and vegetable matter a
breeding place for flies, 90
Bird lice, 123; see plates
Borelli, 7, 9
Bnino, 5
Butterflies, of plum, peach, and
pear, 102 coition observed,
103; life historv* 103; of
holm oak, 104; of night-
shade, 104-105; of oak, 105-
107; Ecdysis observed, 106;
eggs laid, 106; unfertilized
eggs do not hatch, 107; of
cabbage, 107-108
Cabbage butterfly, 107-108; life
history observed, 113
Campanella, 5
Cannibalism of animals, 6^
Caporali's verses on the life oi
Maecenas, 118
Cardano, Jerome, 43, 50
Carrion flies. 27
Caterpillars, 103-108
Celsus, 38
Cherry worm, 9^100, 101
Cheese, old views concerning
worms in, 73; experiments
with, 74-75
Chrysalis, 106
Clematis, 85
Closed flasks, experiments with,
Cocoons, 103-106
Coition of flies, 74
Columella, 38, 39, 46
Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tus-
cany, 6
Crabs, 36
Crescenzi, Pietro, 43, 47
^Fftge numbers in italics indicate the position of illustrations. Most of the
fllnstrations are reduced to about two-thirds the size of the original engrav-
ings. Plate 15 is the same size. Plates ao-22 and 25-28 are reduced to about
tlirce>fcMirthi^ and Plates t^ 26^ and 29, to about one half.
157
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158
INDEX
Dante, 20, 47
Dati, C. 7
Dead animals do not produce
worms, 38
Decayed plants, insects in, 89
Democritus, 23, 96
Descartes, g
Didymus, 46 ; in " Country-Life,"
speaks of lice, 120
Digby, Sir Kenelm, 36
Digestion, 7z
Dioscorides, 89
Divini, Eustachio, maker of mi-
croscopes^ 125
Dung, breedmg place of flies
and gnats, not bees, 43
Earth mother, 21-24
Ecdysis, of caterpillar, 106
££^SS> of carrion flies, 31
Eggs laid by butterflies, 113; on
cabbage stalks, in the cracks
of bark, on elder tree
Elder, caterpillars on, parasit-
ized, 113-11S
Empedocles, 22, 96
Epicurus, 22
Evolution, early theories of, 21-
24
Experimental method, 20-21
Experiments: Carrion flies, 27;
with closed flasks, ZZ} vatzX
under ground, 34; with dead
flies. 34; meat m gauze cov-
erea flask, 36-37; on the
origin of scorpions, 51;
toads proved not to arise
from putrefying duck, 64
effect of oil on maggots, 65
drowning of flies, 65-66.
with cheese, 74-75; with
melon and pumpkin, 76
Explanation of plates, 125
Fabri, Honor^ 37» 44> 78
Feeling and motion, 99
Filbert worm, loo-ioi
Filicaja, 6
Fiorentino, 40
Flies, 27; viviparous, 37; ova-
ries, 38; bred in tun-fish, 66;
breed in dung, 43; cheese
flies, 74-75; coition ob-
served, 74
FoUi, Francesco, inventor of
hygrometer, 43
Frogs, 77-80; sudden appearance
after rain explained, 80
Fruits, secondary purpose, 92
Fungi, worms in living fungi, 90
Galen, 26, 3ft 57
Galileo, 5, 9
Gall, insects, 109-J/o, iii; wil-
low galls, 112; Kircher
Galls, 70, 92-9^ ; peculiar insects,
94; differ m times of matur-
Gassendi, Pierre, a2, 73, 91
Generative principle, 73, 91, 92
Gnats parasitic on carrion fly
larvae, 32
Gnats, breed in dung, 43
Gottigniez, 7
Grembs, Francis, 43
Hair snakes produced from
women's hair, according to
Avicenna, 64
Harvey, W., 9; all living things
born from seed, 24-25
Heart of snake, 81
Heterogenesis in living plants,
91-92, 116; tapeworms, bot-
flies, 116
Homer, 33
Hornets, eat meat, 47; poison
not dependent on food, 48;
feed on bees and flies, 49;
originate in flesh of dead
horses, according to Virgil
and Ovid, 50
Houillier, Jacques, 52
Ichneumon-fly. 114
Insects, 23; killed by oil, 65;
when really drowned can
not be revived, 66; in de-
caved plants, 89
Isopod? (Arcturus?), 122
Jesuits, s
Johnston, John, 43
Kepler, 5
Kiranis, 64
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INDEX
159
Kircher, Athanasius, 7, 34, 43»
64, 81 ; experiment on frogs,
7&-79
Lactantius, 21
Liceto, Fortunio, 43, 52, 91
Lifeless bodies incapable of pro-
ducing anything without in-
semination, 115
Low and high, terms unknown
to Nature, 95
Magalotti, 7
Maggots hatched from eggs, 31
Maggots, 38
Magone, 38
Malice never found in animals
not endowed with speech.
48
Manicheans, 96
Mantis, 88, 89; two color-va-
rieties, 85; external struc-
ture, 85; ecdysis, 86; inter-
nal structure^ 86; eggs, 86,
SS, 89; graftmg experiment,
Marchetti, 7
Marine animals, parasites, 121
Mattiuoli, 52, 70
Melon, 76
Mena^o, 49
Menzini, 6
Metamorphosis, 106
Moufet, Thomas, 43, 44, 47, 68,
71 ; reports on parasites of
beetles, 121; Theatrum In-
sectarum, 120
Nicander, 42
Oeffer^ Wolfgang, 52
Olimpiodorus, 50
Origen, 42
Oro, so
Osier, berry-like growths, 108
Ovaries of flies, 38
Ovid, 39, 42, ^, 51, 77
Paracelsus, 30
Paralysis, 99
Parasites, 116; liver fluke; bot-
flies, 117, 118; Aristotle de-
scribes worms in deer*s
head, 117; of caterpillars,
113-115; of maggots, 32
Pizzichi, R, 124; drawings of
lice
Peach, worm in, 102
Pear, worm in, 102
Philas of Tarsus, 42
Philo the Jew, 42
Philosophy, 126 ; only . aim of
philosophy is the search for
truth, 126; Seneca, 126
Philes, Manuel, 46
Philetas of Cos, 41
Pisida, George, 36, 42
Plant-animals, 96, 98-99
Plates, lice of the falcon, 127;
louse of the large pigeon,
turtle-dove, louse or mite,
hen-louse, or mite, louse of
starling, 128; louse of the
crane, 129; lice of the moor-
hen, figures, I, 2, 3, 130;
louse of the white-heron,
egret, 131; louse of the
black-heron, 132; louse of
the spoon-bill, 133; louse of
swan, head of swan-louse
under view, 134; louse of
wild-duck, louse of sea-gull,
mite of the swan, 135; lice
of the wild-goose, 136; lice
of the plover, 137; louse of
the kestrel, 139; louse of
the peacock, 140; louse of
white peacock, 141; louse of
the crow, louse of the
capon, 142; louse of the
white starling, worm found
in citron and spice, 143;
common louse, 144; crab-
louse, tick of wild-goat, 145 ;
louse of camel, 146; louse
of the ass, 147; louse of
African sheep, louse of
Guinea-hen, liS; deer lice,
149^ tick of the tiger, 150;
gram weevil, 151; ant, 152;
ant, 2, 153; ant, 3; shaggy.
154; mosquito, 155
Plato, 96
Pliny, 18, 38, 46, 47, 50, 51, 52,
69, 65, 76, 77, 90
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INDEX
Pliny exempts asses and sheep
from lice, 120
Plotinus, 96
Plum, worm in, 102
Plutarch, 42
Porta, Battista, 50, 52^ 64
Purpose, ^
Putrefaction, 91
Pythagorus, 96
Pumpkin, 76
Pupae, 28
Redi, R, life of, 5-8; significance
of his work, ^11; bibliog-
raphy, 13; belief in biogen-
esis, 26-27
Rucellai, Giovanni, poem on
bees, 40-41
Sachs, Philip James, 51
Saint Jerome, 57
Scaliger, 37
Scorpions, 63; myths concerning
spontaneous generation of,
51-53 ; this theory disproved,
53; sexual differences, 53;
habits of young, 54; position
of young in oviduct, 54;
abundance in Italy, 55; Ital-
ian species conmared with
forms from Eg^pt and
Tunis, 55-57; weight, 55;
aperture of sting, 58 ; poison,
its effects, 58-62; flies breed
in dead scorpions, 64
Segneri, 7
Seneca, quotation, 126
Senses, their use as a guide to
reason, 19
Sensibility of plants, 96-98
Servius the grammarian, 50
. Silkworms, 115; Vida's origin of
same in decayed flesh of
mule, 115
Snakes, 27, 49; belief in creation
from rotten matter utterly
false, 64 ; heart has one ven-
tricle, 81
Soul, as generative principle, 91,
92
Sperling, Johann, 37, 43, 65, 119
Spiders, ability to withstand
starvation, 66; e^s, 67, 69;
young, 67; ecdysis, 68; nest,
69; thread, 69; do not live
in galls, 70; web, 71-72
Sponges, plant-animals, 96;
movement, 99
Spontaneous generation, 9, 91
Spontaneous generation, early
belief in, 21 ; flesh does not
become wormy of itself, 72;
does not occur in protected
fruits and vegetables, 75;
does not occur in dead ani-
mals, 38; in dead flesh de-
nied, ^
Stoics, theory of origin of man,
22
Sweet basil, belief that scorpions
are produced by it disproved,
52
Tachinid fly, J14
Tadpoles, 79
Tertullian, 57
Theophrastus, 48
Toads, 64; appearance during a
shower, explained, 80
Tumors on plants, 81, 85, 82-84
(see also Galls)
Tun-fish, 65
Turtles, method of laying eggs,
78
Uterus, use of the term, 69
Vallisneri, 10
Varini, 5
Varro, 26, 38, 39, 46, 50
Vidaj Girolamo, 115
Virgil, 39. 42
Vital stimulus, 94
Voss, Gerard, 43
Wasps eat meat, 47; poison not
dependent on food, 48; at-
tack bees and flies, 49; feed
on fruit and flowers, 49;
originate in flesh of dead
horses, according to Varro,.
50
Whitethorn, 85
World soul, 24
Zoophytes, 96, 98-99
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